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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To pass beyond the limits of: emotions that transcend understanding.
  2. v. To be greater than, as in intensity or power; surpass: love that transcends infatuation. See Synonyms at excel.
  3. v. To exist above and independent of (material experience or the universe): "One never can see the thing in itself, because the mind does not transcend phenomena” ( Hilaire Belloc).
  4. v. To be transcendent; excel.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To climb over or up; ascend; mount; reach or extend upward to.
  2. To pass over; go beyond; overpass; overstep.
  3. To surpass; outdo; excel; exceed.
  4. To cause to climb or pass; lift; elevate.
  5. Synonyms To overstep.
  6. To outstrip, outdo.
  7. To climb; mount; pass upward or onward.
  8. To be transcendent; excel.

Wiktionary

  1. v. to pass beyond the limits of something.
  2. v. to surpass something in intensity or power; to excel.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To rise above; to surmount.
  2. v. To pass over; to go beyond; to exceed.
  3. v. To surpass; to outgo; to excel; to exceed.
  4. v. To climb; to mount.
  5. v. To be transcendent; to excel.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. be superior or better than some standard
  2. v. be greater in scope or size than some standard

Etymologies

  1. Middle English transcenden, from Old French transcendre, from Latin trānscendere : trāns-, trans- + scandere, to climb; see skand- in Indo-European roots.

Examples

  • “To transcend is to become transparent, clear, open.”

    Generation Open | FactoryCity

  • “We look forward to working with them as we transcend from the shuttle to our future exploration of space, and continue the important engineering and scientific discoveries aboard the International Space Station.”

    NASA Watch: June 2009 Archives

  • “To transcend is to go beyond and penetrate the mundane into a deeper truth or trust.”

    Simon & Schuster: God is Not a Christian, Nor a Jew, Muslim, Hindu …

  • “RachelCreative: you are a creative force of nature, disability be darned, you transcend, that is what I have learned from you - transcend, be obsessed, go on, go further, continue, progress until the work is stacked up behind you and then continue some more.”

    Last Saturday and the piece of sky and trees

  • “For although I call myself a Catholic, my faith was formed and informed outside the church, and what I know and believe about God will always to use my inner Unitarian's favorite word transcend church teaching in some ways.”

    Philocrites: February 2005 Archives

  • “For although I call myself a Catholic, my faith was formed and informed outside the church, and what I know and believe about God will always to use my inner Unitarian’s favorite word transcend church teaching in some ways.”

    Philocrites: When is a Unitarian more Catholic than the Pope?

  • “This makes the spoken word transcend the written word.”

    Public Speaking

  • “The transcendentalists, therefore, endeavored to transcend, that is, to pass beyond, the range of human sense and experience.”

    History of American Literature

  • “America's efforts to "transcend" race are still about America's efforts to forget the past entirely and of course to ignore anything happening right now that might require confronting reality. un ange vole? link memories”

    January 29th, 2010

  • “Examples include the "New Security Concept," promoted at the turn of this century which seeks to "transcend" existing American bilateral alliances in favour of new regional multilateral security cooperation with all Asian nations, and especially existing American security allies and partners.”

    The Wall Street Journal: The Stakes at the East Asia Summit

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  • schmerle Please accept
    Please accept this honor
    this is all for you
    transcend

    (Dredg: "Ode to the Sun") Aug 1, 2007

‘transcend’ has been looked up 2368 times, loved by 9 people, added to 44 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 12.