tran·si·to·ry  (tr ăn s ĭ-tôr ′ē, tr ăn z ĭ-)
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adj. Existing or lasting only a short time; short-lived or temporary: "the disorder of his life: the succession of cities, of transitory loves" (Carson McCullers).
[Middle English transitorie, from Old French transitoire, from Late Latin trānsitōrius, from Latin, having a passageway, from trānsitus, passage; see TRANSIT.]
tran′si·tori·ly adv. transi·to′ri·ness n. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices
Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:
Indo-European Roots
Semitic Roots
The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.
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