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TEMPORARY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A worker (especially in an office) hired on a temporary basis
Synonyms:
temp; temporary; temporary worker
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("temporary" is a kind of...):
worker (a person who works at a specific occupation)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "temporary"):
hobo; migrant worker (a worker who moves around and works temporarily in different places)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Lacking continuity or regularity
Example:
employed on a temporary basis
Synonyms:
irregular; temporary
Classified under:
Similar:
part-time; part time (involving less than the standard or customary time for an activity)
Derivation:
temporariness (the property of lasting only a short time)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Not permanent; not lasting
Example:
temporary housing
Synonyms:
impermanent; temporary
Classified under:
Similar:
working (adopted as a temporary basis for further work)
terminable (capable of being terminated after a designated time)
temporal (not eternal)
shipboard (casual or ephemeral as if taking place on board a ship)
pro tem; pro tempore (for the time being)
interim (serving during an intermediate interval of time)
improvised; jury-rigged; makeshift (done or made using whatever is available)
fly-by-night (ephemeral)
evanescent (tending to vanish like vapor)
episodic (limited in duration to a single episode)
ephemeral; fugacious; passing; short-lived; transient; transitory (lasting a very short time)
acting (serving temporarily especially as a substitute)
Also:
unstable (lacking stability or fixity or firmness)
Attribute:
permanence; permanency (the property of being able to exist for an indefinite duration)
Derivation:
temporariness (the property of lasting only a short time)
Context examples:
On hearing this information I suffered a temporary access of despair.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
I trust, however, that my absence may prove to be but a temporary one.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
A drug used to control pain and to cause a temporary loss of feeling in one part of the body, during and after surgery.
(Naropin, NCI Dictionary)
It can be temporary, when the organ needs time to heal.
(Ostomy, NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)
A temporary atmosphere would be consistent with the water vapor the Herschel Space Observatory detected at Ceres in 2012-2013.
(Ceres' Geological Activity, Ice Revealed in New Research, NASA)
The research team found little to no increase in breast cancer risk for semi-permanent or temporary dye use.
(Permanent hair dye and straighteners may increase breast cancer risk, National Institutes of Health)
This temporary increase in methane — sharply up and then back down — tells us there must be some relatively localized source, biological or non-biological, such as interaction of water and rock.
(Curiosity Detects Methane Spike on Mars, NASA)
However, if rings are temporary, perhaps we just missed out on seeing giant ring systems of Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, which have only thin ringlets today!
(Saturn is Losing Its Rings, NASA)
If it were one which would also admit of the mysterious note with its very curious phraseology, why, then it would be worth accepting as a temporary hypothesis.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
A relatively temporary state of feeling.
(Mood, NCI Thesaurus)
