Short-lived

//ʃɔɹtˈlɪvd// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Alive or existent for only a short period of time.

    "But his joy was short-lived, for his fortunes soon changed."

  2. 2
    Of a radioisotope (or by extension radioelement): having a short half-life.
Adjective
  1. 1
    lasting a very short time wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
briefbrittlecapriciouschangeablecorruptibledeciduous

Example

More examples

"Ill-gotten gains are short-lived. The only way to make real money is to earn every penny."

Etymology

From short + lived (“having a life, lifed”), equivalent to short + life + -ed. Compare Middle English short-livi, sort-levi (“short-lived”).

Related phrases

sharp short-lived head painshort-livedness

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