transient

From Late Latin transiēnt- (for classical transeunt-), stem of transiēns, present participle of transire (“to go over, to pass”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹan.zi.ənt/, /ˈtɹɑːn.zi.ənt/, /-si.ənt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹæn.ʃənt/, /ˈtɹæn.si.ənt/, /ˈtɹæn.zi.ənt/

transient (comparative more transient, superlative most transient)

1. Passing or disappearing with time; transitory.

   a transient pleasure

   • 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:

     this transient world

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

     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?

2. Remaining for only a brief time.

   a transient view of a landscape

   a transient disease

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

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

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

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

3. (physics) Decaying with time, especially exponentially.
4. (mathematics, stochastic processes, of a state) having a positive probability of being left and never being visited again.
5. Occasional; isolated; one-off
6. Passing through; passing from one person to another.
7. (music) Intermediate.
8. (philosophy) Operating beyond itself; having an external effect.

• (passing): passing, transitory, temporary
• (brief): brief, ephemeral, fleeting, flighty, fugacious

• (antonym(s) of “passing”): permanent
• (antonym(s) of “brief”): permanent, chronic, inveterate
• (antonym(s) of “mathematics”): recurrent
• (antonym(s) of “philosophy”): immanent

transient (plural transients)

1. Something that is transient.
2. (physics) A transient phenomenon, especially an electric current; a very brief surge.
3. (acoustics) A 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.
   • 1996, Janette Turner Hospital, Oyster, paperback edition, Virago Press, page 3:

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

5. A homeless person.
6. (programming) A module that generally remains in memory only for a short time.
   • 1978, Computerworld, volume 12, number 25, page 26:

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

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

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

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

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

7. (Philippines) A homestay. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

• (traveller): itinerant, migrant, traveller
• (homeless person): homeless

• insertant, instanter, intranets