Definition of "impermanent" [im•per•ma•nent]

• Not lasting or durable; not permanent. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Often translated as "impermanent," it's actually the negative of nicca, which means constant or dependable."
• "Now, the difference between "impermanent" and "inconstant" may seem semantic, but it's crucial to the way anicca functions in the Buddha's teachings."
• "What had seemed at first to be burns struck him now as something else — the skin was not taut like a scar, but instead strangely discolored, as if eaten by a delicate acid perhaps, or scorched by a particularly harsh sunburn, or even a kind of impermanent tattoo — something with diluted henna?"