as in shortness
the state or quality of lasting only for a short time the transience of spring in northern climates means residents get to enjoy temperate weather only briefly before the heat and humidity of summer set in

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of transience The transience of childhood gives way to a permanence that defines adulthood. Rick Tumlinson, Space.com, 23 Jan. 2025 But like him, Edwards said, every resident in the city affected by the wildfires is also learning a valuable lesson about the transience of possessions. Will Carless, USA TODAY, 12 Jan. 2025 But that depth is harder to maintain in the NIL/portal era of player transience. Matt Baker, The Athletic, 9 Jan. 2025 Although there will always be opposition to change, college sports have entered a new era defined by transience, athlete empowerment, and business acumen rather than the traditional amateur ideal. Mark Lasota, Ph.d., Forbes, 22 Dec. 2024 See All Example Sentences for transience
Recent Examples of Synonyms for transience
Noun
  • These works, made entirely in nature and left to be reclaimed by it, speak to a deep reverence for impermanence and the fleeting beauty of the world around us.
    Y-Jean Mun-Delsalle, Forbes.com, 7 May 2025
  • Her installation of long, wide sheets of light-sensitive film, draped from the ceiling and eventually bearing traces of sunlight and heat, was one of the highlights of last year’s Whitney Biennial, part of her ongoing investigations into impermanence, inheritance, memory, and time.
    Lisa Wong Macabasco, Vogue, 29 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • But transiency in the back of the bullpen extends well beyond Woodward’s arrival.
    Dallas News, Dallas News, 27 July 2022
  • The council will hold a workshop outlining strategies and efforts to remedy homelessness and transiency in the city.
    Laura Groch, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Feb. 2021
Noun
  • Mohammadi works with materials that disintegrate, for instance halva, soap, letting their ephemerality echo the fragility of memory.
    Nargess Banks, Forbes.com, 26 May 2025
  • Jia’s sense of the ephemerality of the medium, and of the world that the medium reflects, has seldom been more stirringly profound.
    Justin Chang, New Yorker, 2 May 2025
Noun
  • To explain why a gag is funny is to crush its soufflé evanescence.
    Stephanie Zacharek, TIME, 19 Mar. 2025
  • The Stranger with its exploration of another facet of exile and belonging, this time set on a flood-prone German island that exists in a perpetual struggle between evanescence and permanence.
    Jay D. Weissberg, Deadline, 19 Feb. 2025

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“Transience.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/transience. Accessed 6 Jun. 2025.

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