temporary

English

Alternative forms

• tempory (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin temporarius, from tempus (“time”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛmpəɹəɹi/, /ˈtɛmpəɹi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛmp(əˌɹ)ɛɹi/, /ˈtɛmpəɹi/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ˈʈɛmp(ɵ)rəri/, (proscribed, metathesis) /ˈʈɛmprəwəri/
• Hyphenation: tem‧po‧rary

Adjective

temporary (comparative more temporary, superlative most temporary)

1. Not permanent; existing only for a period or periods of time.

   Sally was put in temporary charge of the department while they searched for a full-time replacement.

2. Existing only for a short time or short times; transient, ephemeral.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:ephemeral

Derived terms

• nontemporary
• temporarily
• temporariness
• temporary gentleman
• temporary help
• temporary restraining order
• temporary tooth
• there is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution

Translations

for a limited time, ephemeral, not constant

Arabic: مُؤَقَّت (muʔaqqat) Armenian: ժամանակավոր (hy) (žamanakavor) Azerbaijani: müvəqqəti (az), ötücü, ötəri, sürəksiz Belarusian: тымчасо́вы (tymčasóvy), часо́вы (be) (časóvy) Bulgarian: вре́менен (bg) (vrémenen) Burmese: ယာယီ (my) (yayi) Catalan: temporal (ca), temporani Chinese: Mandarin: 暫時 / 暂时 (zh) (zànshí, zhànshí, zǎnshí) Czech: dočasný (cs) m Danish: midlertidig (da) Dutch: tijdelijk (nl) Esperanto: efemera (eo), iama Finnish: väliaikainen (fi), ohimenevä (fi), hetkellinen (fi), määräaikainen (fi) French: temporaire (fr), provisoire (fr) m or f Galician: temporal (gl), transitorio (gl) Georgian: დროებითი (droebiti) German: zeitweilig (de), temporär (de), vorübergehend (de) Gothic: 𐍈𐌴𐌹𐌻𐌰𐍈𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌱𐍃 (ƕeilaƕairbs) Greek: προσωρινός (el) (prosorinós) Ancient: πρόσκαιρος (próskairos) Hindi: अस्थायी (hi) (asthāyī) Hungarian: ideiglenes (hu), átmeneti (hu) Italian: temporaneo (it) Japanese: 暫くの (ja) (しばらくの, shibaraku no), 暫時の (ja) (ざんじの, zanji no), 一時的な (ja) (いちじてきな, ichijiteki na) Kazakh: уақытша (uaqytşa) Korean: 일시적인 (ilsijeog-in) Kyrgyz: убактылуу (ky) (ubaktıluu), күнүмдүк (ky) (künümdük) Latin: temporālis, temporārius Macedonian: привремен (privremen) Manchu: ᠨᡝᡵᡤᡳᠨ (nergin) Maori: rangitahi, taupua Northern Sami: gaskaboddosaš Norwegian: Bokmål: midlertidig (no) Nynorsk: mellombels (nn) Persian: زمانه‌ور (zamānevar) Iranian Persian: مُوَقَّت (movaġġat) Polish: tymczasowy (pl) krótkoczasowy, krótkotrwały (pl) Portuguese: temporário (pt) Romanian: temporar (ro) Russian: вре́менный (ru) (vrémennyj) Scottish Gaelic: sealach Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: привремен Roman: privremen (sh) Slovak: dočasný Slovene: začasen Spanish: temporal (es) (polysemic), temporario (es) (uncommon), temporáneo (es) (uncommon), temporero (es) (of a worker) Swedish: tillfällig (sv), temporär (sv) Tagalog: pansamantala Telugu: తాత్కాలికం (te) (tātkālikaṁ) Turkish: geçici (tr) Ukrainian: тимчасо́вий (tymčasóvyj), пли́нний (plýnnyj) Uyghur: ۋاقىتلىق (waqitliq), مۇۋەققەت (muweqqet) Vietnamese: tạm thời (vi), lâm thời (vi) Welsh: dros dro (cy)

Noun

temporary (plural temporaries)

1. One serving for a limited time; a short-term employee, especially in an office.

   Synonyms: floater, temp

2. (programming) A short-term variable used to store an intermediate result.

   Synonym: temp

Translations

short-term employee

Catalan: eventual (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 臨時工 / 临时工 (zh) (línshígōng), 臨時雇員 / 临时雇员 (línshí gùyuán) Danish: vikar (da) Finnish: määräaikainen työntekijä French: intérimaire (fr) m or f German: Zeitarbeitskraft f Romanian: interimat (ro) n Russian: вре́менный рабо́тник m (vrémennyj rabótnik), вре́менный сотру́дник m (vrémennyj sotrúdnik), вре́менная рабо́тница f (vrémennaja rabótnica), вре́менная сотру́дница f (vrémennaja sotrúdnica) Sicilian: jurnataru (scn) (daily worker) Spanish: temporero (es) m, temporal (es) m