Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A short-lived thing.
  • noun Printed matter of passing interest.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An insect which lives but for a day or for a very short time; hence, any being whose existence is very brief.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) One of the ephemeral flies.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun something short lived or transitory

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek ephēmeron, mayfly, from neuter of ephēmeros, daily, short-lived; see ephemeral.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek eph- + ἡμέρα (hēmerā, "day").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Who had a list of sub-atomic particles? Pterodactyl?

    November 18, 2008

  • The mayfly begins life at dawn,

    By sundown the wee beast is gone,

    And all it desires

    Before it expires

    Is love with a friendly ephemeron.

    June 10, 2018