transient

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: tran=sient

CIDE DICTIONARY

transient, a. [L. transiens, -entis, p. pr. of transire, transitum, to go or pass over. See Trance.].

•  Passing before the sight or perception, or, as it were, moving over or across a space or scene viewed, and then disappearing; hence, of short duration; not permanent; not lasting or durable; not stationary; passing; fleeting; brief; transitory; as, transient pleasure.  Milton.  [1913 Webster]
•  Hasty; momentary; imperfect; brief; as, a transient view of a landscape.  [1913 Webster]
•  Staying for a short time; not regular or permanent; as, a transient guest; transient boarders.  [1913 Webster]

  "What is loose love? A transient gust."  [1913 Webster]

  "If [we love] transitory things, which soon decay,
  Age must be loveliest at the latest day."  [1913 Webster]

  "O fleeting joys
  Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes."  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Transient, Transitory, Fleeting.

transient, n. 

 That which remains but for a brief time.  Glanvill.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

transient, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 of short duration; momentary; passing; impermanent (life is transient; of transient interest).
2 Mus. serving only to connect; inessential (a transient chord).
--n.
1 a temporary visitor, worker, etc.
2 Electr. a brief current etc.

Derivative

transience n. transiency n. transiently adv.

Etymology

L transire (as TRANS-, ire go)

THESAURUS

transient

able to adapt, adaptable, adjustable, adventurer, alpinist, alterable, alterative, arising, astronaut, board-and-roomer, boarder, brief, brittle, camper, capricious, changeable, checkered, circumforaneous, climber, comers and goers, coming, commuter, compact, compendious, concise, corruptible, cosmopolite, cruiser, curt, curtal, curtate, deciduous, decurtate, disappearing, discursive, dissolving, divagatory, drifting, dying, emanating, emanative, emanent, emergent, emerging, ephemeral, errant, evanescent, evaporating, ever-changing, excursionist, explorer, fading, fare, fickle, fleeting, flexible, flitting, floating, fluid, fly-by-night, flying, footloose, footloose and fancy-free, forthcoming, fragile, frail, fugacious, fugitive, gadding, globe-girdler, globe-trotter, goer, gypsy-like, gypsyish, hajji, impermanent, impetuous, impulsive, inconstant, instantaneous, insubstantial, issuing, jet set, jet-setter, journeyer, kaleidoscopic, landloping, lessee, little, lodger, low, malleable, many-sided, mariner, meandering, melting, metamorphic, migrational, migratory, mobile, modifiable, momentaneous, momentary, mortal, mountaineer, movable, mutable, nomad, nomadic, nondurable, nonpermanent, nonuniform, palmer, passenger, passer, passerby, passing, pathfinder, paying guest, perishable, permutable, pilgrim, pioneer, plastic, protean, proteiform, rambling, ranging, renter, resilient, roaming, roomer, roving, rubberneck, rubbernecker, rubbery, sailor, shifting, short, short and sweet, short-lived, short-term, sightseer, sojourner, straggling, straphanger, straying, strolling, subject to death, succinct, summary, supple, surfacing, synoptic, temporal, temporary, temporary lodger, tenant, tourer, tourist, trailblazer, trailbreaker, traipsing, transeunt, transient guest, transitive, transitory, transmigratory, traveler, trekker, tripper, underlessee, undurable, unenduring, unstable, vagabond, vagrant, vanishing, variable, viator, visiting fireman, volatile, voortrekker, voyager, voyageur, wandering, wayfarer, world-traveler

ROGET THESAURUS

transient

Transientness

N transience, transientness, evanescence, impermanence, fugacity, caducity, mortality, span, nine days' wonder, bubble, Mayfly, spurt, flash in the pan, temporary arrangement, interregnum, velocity, suddenness, changeableness, transient, transient boarder, transient guest, transient, transitory, transitive, passing, evanescent, fleeting, cursory, short-lived, ephemeral, flying, fugacious, fugitive, shifting, slippery, spasmodic, instantaneous, momentaneous, temporal, temporary, provisional, provisory, deciduous, perishable, mortal, precarious, unstable, insecure, impermanent, brief, quick, brisk, extemporaneous, summary, pressed for time, sudden, momentary, temporarily, pro tempore, for the moment, for a time, awhile, en passant, in transitu, in a short time, soon, briefly, at short notice, on the point of, on the eve of, in articulo, between cup and lip, one's days are numbered, the time is up, here today and gone tomorrow, non semper erit aestas, eheu! fugaces labuntur anni, sic transit gloria mundi, a schoolboy's tale, the wonder of the hour!, dum loquimur fugerit invidia aetas, fugit hora, all that is transitory is but an illusion, transience, transientness, evanescence, impermanence, fugacity, caducity, mortality, span, nine days' wonder, bubble, Mayfly, spurt, flash in the pan, temporary arrangement, interregnum, velocity, suddenness, changeableness, transient, transient boarder, transient guest, transient, transitory, transitive, passing, evanescent, fleeting, cursory, short-lived, ephemeral, flying, fugacious, fugitive, shifting, slippery, spasmodic, instantaneous, momentaneous, temporal, temporary, provisional, provisory, deciduous, perishable, mortal, precarious, unstable, insecure, impermanent, brief, quick, brisk, extemporaneous, summary, pressed for time, sudden, momentary, temporarily, pro tempore, for the moment, for a time, awhile, en passant, in transitu, in a short time, soon, briefly, at short notice, on the point of, on the eve of, in articulo, between cup and lip, one's days are numbered, the time is up, here today and gone tomorrow, non semper erit aestas, eheu! fugaces labuntur anni, sic transit gloria mundi, a schoolboy's tale, the wonder of the hour!, dum loquimur fugerit invidia aetas, fugit hora, all that is transitory is but an illusion.

Changeableness

N changeableness, mutability, inconstancy, versatility, mobility, instability, unstable equilibrium, vacillation, fluctuation, vicissitude, alternation, restlessness, fidgets, disquiet, disquietude, inquietude, unrest, agitation, moon, Proteus, chameleon, quicksilver, shifting sands, weathercock, harlequin, Cynthia of the minute, April showers, wheel of Fortune, transientness, changeable, changeful, changing, mutable, variable, checkered, ever changing, protean, proteiform, versatile, unstaid, inconstant, unsteady, unstable, unfixed, unsettled, fluctuating, restless, agitated, erratic, fickle, irresolute, capricious, touch and go, inconsonant, fitful, spasmodic, vibratory, vagrant, wayward, desultory, afloat, alternating, alterable, plastic, mobile, transient, wavering, seesaw, off and on, a rolling stone gathers no moss, pictra mossa non fa muschis, honores mutant mores, varium et mutabile semper femina.