Ephemeral Meaning and Modern Uses | Generated by AI
Question: What does “ephemeral” mean?
Answer:
Ephemeral means lasting for a very short time, temporary, short-lived, or quickly passing.
It is most commonly used in these contexts:
-
General / everyday English
Something that disappears or changes rapidly.
Example: “The beauty of cherry blossoms is ephemeral.” - Social media / tech (very common modern usage)
Content that automatically disappears after being viewed or after a short period (usually within 24 hours).
Examples:- Snapchat stories and messages
- Instagram Stories
- WhatsApp disappearing messages
- Fleets (Twitter’s old ephemeral feature)
→ “I posted an ephemeral story on Instagram.”
-
Biology / ecology
Short-lived organisms or stages of life.
Example: “Mayflies are ephemeral insects — most adults live only for a few hours or days.” - Computing / programming
Temporary data that exists only briefly.
Examples:- Ephemeral ports (short-lived TCP/UDP ports)
- Ephemeral storage (temporary disk space in containers/Kubernetes)
- Ephemeral keys (cryptographic keys used only once or for a very short time)
Quick synonym list
- fleeting
- transient
- momentary
- short-lived
- temporary
- passing
Antonyms
- permanent
- lasting
- enduring
- eternal
References:
- None needed for this basic definition question