Transient

How to spell transient

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce transient

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does transient mean?

1. adjectiveLasting only a short time; temporary and quickly passing.
2. nounA person who stays somewhere only briefly and has no permanent home in the area.

Transient in a sentence

• adjective

  The painkiller gave only transient relief before the ache returned.

• noun

  The shelter offered a warm bed to any transient passing through the city.

• adjective

  Fame in that industry tends to be transient rather than lasting.

• noun

  The shelter registered every transient who arrived looking for a bed that night.

Where does transient come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin transiens, the present participle of transire, a verb that literally meant 'to go across' or 'to pass over'. It was built from trans, meaning 'across', joined to ire, meaning 'to go', so its root sense is something that is passing through rather than staying put. English adopted it in the early 1600s, first as an adjective for things that last only briefly, then as a noun for people who move from place to place. The same ire 'to go' root powers a whole family of relatives, including 'transit', 'exit', 'ambition' and 'circuit', which is a useful reminder that the spelling keeps that quiet i before the -ent ending. Because the middle of the word is an unstressed blur in speech, writers often drop the i or reach for a wrong vowel, yet that i is simply the surviving trace of the Latin verb 'to go'.

How the word is built

• trans- (across)
• i (from ire: to go)
• -ent (present-participle adjective suffix)