What is the difference between transient and transitory

Examples: "a transient pleasure". Examples: "a transient view of a landscape" "a transient disease". Transitory as an adjective : Lasting only a short time; temporary. She was famous one day and forgotten the next. The usual distinction is that "transient" refers to what is actually short in duration, while "transitory" refers to what is by its nature bound to change or come to an end. A guest is not by nature transitory he could stay for a month if he wanted to.

On the other hand, popularity sooner or later vanishes. So you would use different terms depending upon whether you were making a general statement or a particular statement. All joy is transitory. My joy was transcient. Chasint Senior Member English - England.

Chasint said:. There is no such thing as a permanent action. Matter always exists. PaulQ said:. I said "to exist" is an action. Edinburgher said:. I don't recall hearing "transitory" much at all and never use it. When using ngrams to compare transient, transitory, and temporary, "transitory" comes out as the least frequently used of the three. Learn More About transient. Time Traveler for transient The first known use of transient was in See more words from the same year.

Style: MLA. Kids Definition of transient Entry 1 of 2. Kids Definition of transient Entry 2 of 2. Medical Definition of transient. Get Word of the Day daily email! Test Your Vocabulary. Test your visual vocabulary with our question challenge! Love words? Need even more definitions?