evanescence

/ɛvəˈnɛsɪns/

/ɛvəˈnɛsɪns/

Other forms: evanescences

After you lose a loved one, often you're gripped with a fear of evanescence, or the rapid fading from sight or memory of that person.

Evanescence comes from the Latin evanescere meaning "disappear, vanish." Something that possesses qualities of evanescence, has a quality of disappearing or vanishing. The evanescence of a shooting star makes it hard to catch — it's there one moment and gone the next. Evanescence is a word typically used to describe an event that fades from sight or memory, or sometimes the fleeting quality of worldly success.

Definitions of evanescence

1. noun

   the event of fading and gradually vanishing from sight
   “the evanescence of the morning mist”

   type of:

   disappearance

   the event of passing out of sight