# transient
## English
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈtɹan.zi.ənt/, /ˈtɹɑːn.zi.ənt/, /-si.ənt/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (US) IPA: /ˈtɹæn.ʃənt/, /ˈtɹæn.si.ənt/, /ˈtɹæn.zi.ənt/

### Adjective

transient (comparative more transient, superlative most transient)
* 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?
* 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.
* (physics) Decaying with time, especially exponentially.
* (mathematics, stochastic processes, of a state) having a positive probability of being left and never being visited again.
* Occasional; isolated; one-off
* Passing through; passing from one person to another.
* (music) Intermediate.
* (philosophy) Operating beyond itself; having an external effect.

#### Synonyms

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

#### Antonyms

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

#### Derived terms

* transience
* transient ischaemic attack
* transient ischemic attack
* transient luminous event
* transiently
* transientness

#### Translations
### Noun

transient (plural transients)
* Something that is transient.
* (physics) A transient phenomenon, especially an electric current; a very brief surge.
* (acoustics) A relatively loud, non-repeating signal in an audio waveform that occurs very quickly, such as the attack of a snare drum.
* 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.
* A homeless person.
* (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.
* (Philippines) A homestay. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

#### Synonyms

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

#### Derived terms

* astronomical transient
* fast blue optical transient
* fast-evolving luminous transient

#### Translations
### Anagrams

* insertant, instanter, intranets