A flash in the pan is a sudden success that doesn't last: something that flares up brightly and quickly dies out. It can be a singer, an athlete, a start-up or a trend that made a lot of noise but didn't stay around for long. The idiom is often used with not to say that a success is real: Her win was not a flash in the pan. It sounds natural in conversation and in articles, but in an IELTS essay short-lived success is more neutral.
When would you say a flash in the pan?
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be (just/only) a flash in the pan; turn out to be a flash in the pan; not a flash in the pan
- Their first single was a huge hit, but the band turned out to be a flash in the pan.
- The new café was packed in its first month, but it was just a flash in the pan.
- Critics called the young director a flash in the pan, but her second film was even better.
What changed
First versionTheir first album sold well, but the band was just a flash on the pan.
RevisionTheir first album sold well, but the band was just a flash in the pan.
On the pan may look possible, but the preposition in this idiom is fixed: it is always in the pan. That preposition is the only change in the corrected sentence.
For musicians, people often say a one-hit wonder, a performer remembered for just one hit: The singer was a one-hit wonder in the nineties. A flash in the pan is broader: you can say it about any person, project or trend whose success ended quickly.
Your turn
The app had a million downloads in its first week, but a month later nobody used it. It was just ___.
Show the answer
a flash in the pan — Everyone downloaded the app in the first week and forgot about it a month later: the success flared up and died out, so it was a flash in the pan. A storm in a teacup is about fuss and excitement over something unimportant, but here the point is a success that quickly passed.
Think of something everyone around you was crazy about and then quickly forgot: an app, a game, a toy, a song or a trendy dish. Name the craze and say how long it lasted.
Fidget spinners were a flash in the pan: every child at my school had one for about three months, and then they disappeared.
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