Standard Lemma guide

transience

noun · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • CMU ARPABET: T R AE1 N Z IY0 AH0 N S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The quality of being transient, temporary, brief or fleeting.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

An impermanence that suggests the inevitability of ending or dying.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

the attribute of being brief or fleeting

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: brevity, briefness

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: duration, length

4

noun

Meaning 4

an impermanence that suggests the inevitability of ending or dying

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: transiency, transitoriness

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: impermanence, impermanency

Narrower terms: fugacity, fugaciousness, ephemerality, ephemeralness, fleetingness

History

Etymology

From transient + -ence.

Across languages

Translations

17 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: преходност (prehodnost) — quality of being transient, temporary, brief or fleeting
  • Bulgarian: мимолетност (mimoletnost) — quality of being transient, temporary, brief or fleeting
  • Chinese: 短暫 /短暂 (duǎnzàn) — quality of being transient, temporary, brief or fleeting
  • Dutch: tijdeijkheid — quality of being transient, temporary, brief or fleeting
  • German: Vergänglichkeit — quality of being transient, temporary, brief or fleeting
  • Hungarian: múlékonyság — quality of being transient, temporary, brief or fleeting
  • Hungarian: tünékenység — quality of being transient, temporary, brief or fleeting
  • Hungarian: átmenetiség — quality of being transient, temporary, brief or fleeting
  • Japanese: 一過性 (ikkasei) — quality of being transient, temporary, brief or fleeting
  • Swedish: flyktighet — quality of being transient, temporary, brief or fleeting
  • Bulgarian: преходност (prehodnost) — impermanence that suggests the inevitability of ending or dying
  • Dutch: vergankelijkheid — impermanence that suggests the inevitability of ending or dying
  • German: Vergänglichkeit — impermanence that suggests the inevitability of ending or dying
  • Hungarian: mulandóság — impermanence that suggests the inevitability of ending or dying
  • Japanese: 短命 (tammei) — impermanence that suggests the inevitability of ending or dying
  • Polish: przelotność — impermanence that suggests the inevitability of ending or dying
  • Swedish: förgängelse — impermanence that suggests the inevitability of ending or dying