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Ephemeral vs Instantaneous - What's the difference?

ephemeral | instantaneous |

As adjectives the difference between ephemeral and instantaneous

is that ephemeral is lasting for a short period of time while instantaneous is occurring, arising, or functioning without any delay; happening within an imperceptibly brief period of time.

As a noun ephemeral

is something which lasts for a short period of time.

ephemeral

English

(wikipedia ephemeral)

Noun

(en noun)
  • Something which lasts for a short period of time.

    • Synonyms

    * (short-lived) ephemeron

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Lasting for a short period of time.
  • * Vicesimus Knox
    • Esteem, lasting esteem, the esteem of good men, like himself, will be his reward, when the gale of ephemeral popularity shall have gradually subsided.
  • * Sir J. Stephen
    • sentences not of ephemeral , but of eternal, efficacy
  • * '>citation
    • It was during an access of this kind that I suddenly left my home, and bending my steps towards the near Alpine valleys, sought in the magnificence, the eternity of such scenes, to forget myself and my ephemeral , because human, sorrows.
  • (biology) Existing for only one day, as with some flowers, insects, and diseases.
  • (geology, of a body of water) Usually dry, but filling with water for brief periods during and after precipitation.
  • * 1986 , W.H. Raymond, "Clinoptilolite Deposit in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, U.S.A.", in Y?ichi Murakami et al. (editors), New Developments in Zeolite Science and Technology (conference proceedings), Elsevier, ISBN 978-0-444-98981-9, page 80:
    • The graben constitutes a depositional basin and a topographic low, underlain by Cretaceous shales, in which volcanic debris accumulated in ephemeral lakes and streams in Oligocene and early Miocene time.

    Synonyms

    * (lasting for a short period of time) temporary, transitory, fleeting, evanescent, momentary, short-lived, short, volatile * See also

    Antonyms

    * (lasting for a long period of time) permanent, eternal, everlasting, timeless.

    Derived terms

    * ephemerally

    Related terms

    * ephemera * ephemeron * ephemerality

    External links

    * *

    instantaneous

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Occurring]], [[arise, arising, or functioning without any delay; happening within an imperceptibly brief period of time.
  • * 1631 , William Twisse, A discovery of D. Iacksons vanitie , ch. 6, p. 223,
    • This instantaneous motion is supposed by you, to be infinitely swift.
  • * 1766 , , The Vicar of Wakefield , ch. 14.
    • However, no lovers in romance ever cemented a more instantaneous friendship.
  • * 1813 , , Pride and Prejudice , ch. 57,
    • The colour now rushed into Elizabeth's cheeks in the instantaneous conviction of its being a letter from the nephew.
  • * 1907 , , The Secret Agent , ch. 4,
    • It's the principle of the pneumatic instantaneous shutter for a camera lens.
  • * 2007 , Spector jury given graphic account of actress 'murder' Times Online , London, 30 May (retrieved 13 July 2007),
    • He said that the bullet went through her head, severed her spine and death would have been almost instantaneous .

    Synonyms

    * instant

    Derived terms

    * instantaneously * instantaneity

    References

    * * * * * " instantaneous" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007) * " instantaneous" in Compact Oxford English Dictionary , (Oxford University Press, 2007) * Oxford English Dictionary , second edition (1989) English words suffixed with -aneous