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): /ˈtɛmpəˌɹɛɹi/
Hyphenation: tem‧po‧rary
Audio (US) (file)

Adjective

temporary (comparative more temporary, superlative most temporary)

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

Synonyms

See also Thesaurus:ephemeral

Derived terms

temporarily
temporariness

Translations

for a limited time, ephemeral, not constant

Arabic: مُؤَقَّت‎ (muʾaqqat)
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)
Finnish: väliaikainen (fi), ohimenevä (fi), hetkellinen, määräaikainen (fi)
French: temporaire (fr), provisoire (fr) m or f
Galician: temporal (gl), transitorio
German: zeitweilig (de), temporär (de), vorübergehend (de)
Gothic: 𐍈𐌴𐌹𐌻𐌰𐍈𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌱𐍃 (ƕeilaƕairbs)
Greek:
Ancient: πρόσκαιρος (próskairos)
Hungarian: ideiglenes (hu), átmeneti (hu)
Italian: temporaneo (it)
Japanese: 暫くの (ja) (shibaraku no), 暫時の (ja) (zanji no), 一時的な (ja) (ichijiteki na)
Kazakh: уақытша (uaqytşa)
Korean: 일시적인 (ilsijeog-in)
Kyrgyz: убактылуу (ky) (ubaktıluu), күнүмдүк (ky) (künümdük)
Latin: temporālis, temporārius
Macedonian: привремен (privremen)
Maori: rangitahi, taupua
Northern Sami: gaskaboddosaš
Norwegian:
Bokmål: midlertidig (no)
Nynorsk: mellombels (nn)
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)
Swedish: tillfällig (sv), temporär (sv)
Tagalog: pansamantala
Telugu: తాత్కాలికం (te) (tātkālikaṁ)
Ukrainian: тимчасо́вий (tymčasóvyj), пли́нний (plýnnyj)
Vietnamese: tạm thời (vi), lâm thời (vi)

Noun

temporary (plural temporaries)

One serving for a limited time; short-term employee.
(programming) A temporary variable.

Synonyms

temp

Translations

short-term employee

Catalan: eventual (ca)
Danish: vikar (da)
Finnish: määräaikainen työntekijä
French: intérimaire (fr) m or f
German: Zeitarbeitskraft f
Romanian: interimat (ro) n
Sicilian: jurnataru (scn) (daily worker)
Spanish: provisional (es), temporal (es)