ephemeral pond

noun

variants or less commonly ephemeral pool

plural ephemeral ponds also ephemeral pools

: a small body of water that forms (as from accumulated rain or snowmelt) in a shallow depression of land seasonally and especially in spring and that is not connected to a larger body of water : vernal pool

I wish you could hear what it sounds like to sleep near an ephemeral pond in early springtime on the Cumberland Plateau, especially on a rainy night. As darkness begins to fall, the small frogs called spring peepers begin to sing.

—Margaret Renkl

My heart skipped a beat when I found the phalaropes twirling through an ephemeral pool in a synchronized dance.

—Ariana Remmel

Word History

First Known Use

1903, in the meaning defined above