transient

comparative more transient · superlative most transient

1. Passing or disappearing with time; transitory.

   a transient pleasure

   3 more examples

   this transient world

   1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   Or doth she only seem to take ⁠The touch of change in calm or storm; ⁠But knows no more of transient form In her deep self, than some dead lake That holds the shadow of a lark ⁠Hung in the shadow of a heaven?

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XVI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 26

   The Gospel narrative, in his view, contained no historical truth whatever but was merely the expression of a transient stage of self-consciousness, a fanciful projection of the latter's own vicissitudes into historical events.

   1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume I: The Founders, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: powstanie (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 89

2. Remaining for only a brief time.

   a transient disease

   3 more examples

   a transient view of a landscape

   Taking advantage of the surprise, which assured him at least transient attention, he continued, addressing himself particularly to Evelyn.

   1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 27

   Traditionally, alumnae have more impact than students, whom the administration views as transient.

   1980 August 9, Robin Bechhofer, Emmy Goldknopf, “Class Reunion”, in Gay Community News, page 13

   Synonyms: brief, ephemeral, fleeting, flighty, fugacious

3. natural sciencesDecaying with time, especially exponentially.
4. engineeringunsteady, [[nonsteady|non-]-steady-state]].
5. stochastic processesmathematicshaving a positive probability of being left and never being visited again.
6. Occasional; isolated; one-off
7. Passing through; passing from one person to another.
8. entertainmentIntermediate.
9. human sciencesOperating beyond itself; having an external effect.

plural transients

1. Something that is transient.
2. natural sciencesA transient phenomenon, especially an electric current; a very brief surge.
3. acousticsA relatively loud, non-repeating signal in an audio waveform that occurs very quickly, such as the attack of a snare drum.
4. A person who passes through a place for a short time; a traveller; a migrant worker.

   Then, within the space of a few months, there were more transients than there were locals, and the imbalance seemed morally wrong.

   1996, Janette Turner Hospital, Oyster, paperback edition, Virago Press, page 3

   1 more example

   Jean Cohen, owner of the Seascape Shack, suspected that the victim had been dumped by a transient from Boston. She noted in her journals that Provincetown’s relatively small population made it improbable the killer was a local.

   2026 September 3, Shreya Lele, “The “Lady of the Dunes” Was Found Murdered in 1974. Nearly 50 Years Later, She Got Her Name Back”, in Skip Boring, archived from the original on 03 Sep 2026

   Synonyms: itinerant, migrant, traveller

5. A homeless person.

   Synonyms: homeless

6. computingA module that generally remains in memory only for a short time.

   The overhead in loading transients is a big time-waster.

   1978, Computerworld, volume 12, number 25, page 26

   2 more examples

   These areas function to single thread supervisor routines that are loaded as needed. The Logical Transient Area (LTA) processes $$B transients.

   1990, Gary A. Stotts, DOS/VSE: Introduction to the Operating System, page 102

   Like with setting and getting transients, WordPress packages a delete_transient() function for deleting a transient from the database.

   2020, Brad Williams, Justin Tadlock, John James Jacoby, Professional WordPress Plugin Development, page 102

7. PhilippinesA homestay.