transcend
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Etymology
From Middle English transcenden, from Old French transcender, from Latin transcendere (“to climb over, step over, surpass, transcend”), from trans (“over”) + scandere (“to climb”); see scan; compare ascend, descend.
Pronunciation
Verb
transcend (third-person singular simple present transcends, present participle transcending, simple past and past participle transcended)
- (transitive) To pass beyond the limits of something.
- a. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a VVarre vvith Spaine. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany VVorks of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. […], London: […] I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, […], published 1629, →OCLC:
- such personal popes, emperors, or elective kings, as shall transcend their limits
- 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Virmire:
- Shepard: What do you want from us? Slaves? Resources?
My kind transcends your very understanding. We are each a nation. Independent, free of all weakness. You cannot grasp the nature of our existence.
- (transitive) To surpass, as in intensity or power; to excel.
- c. 1698, John Dryden, Epitaph on the Monument of a Fair Maiden Lady:
- How much her worth transcended all her kind.
- (obsolete) To climb; to mount.
- lights in the heavens transcending the region of the clouds
- 1655, James Howell, “To Sir Tho. Haw.”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume (please specify the page), London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], →OCLC:
- your Muse soars up to the upper, and transcending that too, takes her fight among the Celestial bodies
Synonyms
- (to pass beyond the limits of something): exceed, overgo, surpass; see also Thesaurus:transcend
- (to surpass something): better, dwarf, eclipse; see also Thesaurus:exceed
- (to climb): ascend
Derived terms
Translations
to pass beyond the limits of something
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to surpass something in intensity or power; to excel
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Further reading
- “transcend”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “transcend”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
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