Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To reverse or transfer the order or place of; interchange. synonym: reverse.
  • intransitive verb Mathematics To move (a term) from one side of an algebraic equation to the other side, reversing its sign to maintain equality.
  • intransitive verb Music To write or perform (a composition) in a key other than the original or given key.
  • intransitive verb To render into another language.
  • intransitive verb To alter in form or nature; transform.
  • intransitive verb Music To write or perform music in a different key.
  • intransitive verb To admit of being transposed.
  • noun A matrix formed by interchanging the rows and columns of a given matrix.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To remove to a different place; transfer; transport.
  • To cause (two or, less frequently, more objects) to change places.
  • In algebra, to bring, as any term of an equation, over from one side to the other side. See transposition, 2.
  • In rhetoric, to change the usual order of (words).
  • In music, to alter the tonality of (a piece or passage) from a given tonality, either in performance or in transcription. See transposition, 4.
  • To transform.
  • In electricity, to interchange as to position (the two parallel wires) of an electric circuit, specifically of a telephone circuit, so as to reduce inductive action from neighboring circuits. See transposition, 7.
  • noun Transposition.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To change the place or order of; to substitute one for the other of; to exchange, in respect of position.
  • transitive verb rare To change; to transform; to invert.
  • transitive verb (Alg.) To bring, as any term of an equation, from one side over to the other, without destroying the equation; thus, if a + b = c, and we make a = c - b, then b is said to be transposed.
  • transitive verb (Gram.) To change the natural order of, as words.
  • transitive verb (Mus.) To change the key of.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun linear algebra The matrix formed by interchanging the rows and columns of another.
  • verb transitive To reverse or change the order of (two or more things); to swap or interchange.
  • verb transitive (music) To rewrite or perform (a piece) in another key
  • verb transitive (algebra) To move (a term) from one side of an algebraic equation to the other, reversing the sign of the term.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb transfer from one place or period to another
  • verb change key
  • verb change the order or arrangement of
  • noun a matrix formed by interchanging the rows and columns of a given matrix
  • verb cause to change places
  • verb put (a piece of music) into another key
  • verb transfer a quantity from one side of an equation to the other side reversing its sign, in order to maintain equality
  • verb exchange positions without a change in value

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English transposen, to transform, from Old French transposer, alteration (influenced by poser, to put, place) of Latin trānspōnere, to transfer : trāns-, trans- + pōnere, to place; see apo- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the verb.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French, from Latin perfect passive participle transpositus, from transponere, to put across, from trans, across, and ponere, to put

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