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transitory

used in a sentence
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Definition lasting a short time
  • Do not be concerned about mild, transitory symptoms.
transitory = lasting a short time
  • The goal of this emergency organization is to keep a transitory problem from turning into one that is permanent.
    • transitory = lasting a short time
  • Physical beauty is passing. A transitory possession.
    Tennessee Williams  --  A Streetcar Named Desire
    • transitory = lasting a short time
  • He was one of the few people who was acutely conscious of the transitoriness of life, and how necessary it was to make the most of it.
    W. Somerset Maugham  --  Of Human Bondage
    • transitoriness = shortness
    (Editor's note:  The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means state or degree of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)
  • This is why Plato finds it necessary to separate, for example, "horseness" from "horse" and say that horseness is real and fixed and true and unmoving, while the horse is a mere, unimportant, transitory phenomenon.
    Robert M. Pirsig  --  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
    • transitory = lasting a short time
  • The church's strength was its tradition, not its transience. The whole world was transitory.
    Dan Brown  --  Angels & Demons
    • transitory = lasting a short time
  • This part of my life, strange and transitory, was almost over.
    Sarah Dessen  --  Along for the Ride
    • transitory = lasting a short time
  • His goodness must not be a partial and transitory act, but a constant
    Henry David Thoreau  --  Walden
    • transitory = temporary (lasting a short time)
  • the human body as transitory and fragile and, by contrast, the soul as enduring.
    Jay Allison, et al.  --  This I Believe
    • transitory = lasting a short time
  • Scientists have always ignored national boundaries, holding themselves above the transitory concerns of politics and even wars.
    Michael Crichton  --  Jurassic Park
    • transitory = lasting a short time
  • He had a transitory idea of jumping into the tram and slamming the doors,
    H.G. Wells  --  The Invisible Man
    • transitory = lasting a short time
  • These feelings are transitory;
    Mary Shelley  --  Frankenstein
    • transitory = lasting a short time
  • For a transitory moment, I think I detect a tiny crack of light in his eyes.
    Khaled Hosseini  --  And The Mountains Echoed
    • transitory = lasting a short time
  • Others are more... transitory.
    Stephenie Meyer  --  New Moon
    • transitory = temporary (lasting a short time)
  • Is it the individual of whom I had formerly—hum—some—ha—slight transitory knowledge, and to whom I believe you have referred?
    Charles Dickens  --  Little Dorrit
    • transitory = lasting a short time
  • I did not then know that it was no transitory blossom, but rather the radiant resemblance of one, cut in an indestructible gem.
    Charlotte Bronte  --  Jane Eyre
    • transitory = lasting a short time
  • this is a kind of beauty even more transitory than most,
    C.S. Lewis  --  The Screwtape Letters
    • transitory = short-lived (lasting a short time)
  • my dear and tender wife was forced to submit to the irresistible power of Death, leaving this transitory life for a better.
    Daniel Defoe  --  Robinson Crusoe
    • transitory = lasting a short time
  • So why should the transitory customs of one local culture affect the decision so much?
    Stephenie Meyer  --  Eclipse
    • transitory = temporary (lasting a short time)
  • Many a night he vaguely and unhappily wandered there, when wine had brought no transitory gladness to him;
    Charles Dickens  --  A Tale of Two Cities
transitory = lasting a short time

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