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evanescent

adjective/ˌɛvəˈnɛsənt/

C2CEFR level
75/100Rarity: rare
LiteraryRegister

Quickly fading from sight or memory.

The scent was evanescent, gone before she could name it.

Similar: fleeting, vanishing

Origin: Latin evanescere ‘to vanish’.

Topic: Time & change in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More general words: Time & change