Ephemerid

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any in the family Ephemeridae of mayflies.

    "I had flown in a helicopter with Javits and Bobby Kennedy. I was skirring around New York like an ephemerid, my jacket lined with jolly psychedelic green."

  2. 2
    short-lived insect wordnet

Example

More examples

"I had flown in a helicopter with Javits and Bobby Kennedy. I was skirring around New York like an ephemerid, my jacket lined with jolly psychedelic green."

Etymology

From translingual Ephemeridae, from New Latin ephemerus, from Ancient Greek ἐφήμερος (ephḗmeros), the more common form of ἐφημέριος (ephēmérios, “of, for, or during the day, living or lasting but for a day, short-lived, temporary”), from ἐπί (epí, “on”) + ἡμέρα (hēméra, “day”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.