- lasting a very short time; short-lived; transitory: The poem celebrates the ephemeral joys of childhood.
- (of flowers or insects) lasting only a few days or less: Lily of the valley is an ephemeral flower.
- being of temporary value or passing interest: She had a scrapbook full of ephemeral news clippings about forgotten events.
- Computers.
- being or relating to messages, images, or other data that are written to temporary or virtual storage only, and are therefore liable to change or be lost unless copied to permanent storage immediately or within a very short time: Snapchat is an ephemeral messaging app.
- being or relating to a temporary storage medium, especially a virtual one: In case of a hardware failure this data will be lost, as it is only stored locally on an ephemeral drive.
- anything short-lived, such as certain flowers and insects.
- lasting for only a short time; transitory; short-lived
- a short-lived organism, such as the mayfly
- a plant that completes its life cycle in less than one year, usually less than six months
