transverse
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transverse
Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)s
Where it comes from
Late Middle English, from Latin trānsversus (“turned across; going or lying across or crosswise”). Doublet of transversal.
adjective
-
Situated or lying across; side to side, relative to some defined "forward" direction; perpendicular or slanted relative to the "forward" direction; identified with movement across areas.
The units have transverse seats, two and three astride the passageway with single or double longitudinal seats alongside the two entrance vestibules in each car.
Opposite: longitudinal, crosswise
- Made at right angles to the long axis of the body.
- (of an intersection) Not tangent, so that a nondegenerate angle is formed between the two things intersecting. (For the general definition, see Transversality (mathematics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia )
- Not in direct line of descent; collateral.
noun transverses
- Anything that is transverse or athwart, such as a road or a ship's web frame.
- The longer, or transverse, axis of an ellipse.
verb transverses · transversing · transversed
- To lie or run across; to cross.
- To traverse or thwart.
- To overturn. And so long shall her censures, when justly passed, have their effect: how then can they be altered or transversed, suspended or superseded, by a temporal government, that must vanish and come to nothing?
- To alter or transform. In love, it is said, all stratagems are fair, and many little ladies transverse the axiom by applying it to discover the secrets of their friends.
- To change from prose into verse, or from verse into prose. Bayes: Why, thus, Sir; nothing so easy when understood; I take a book in my hand, either at home or elsewhere, for that's all one, if there be any wit in't, as there is no book but has some, I transverse it; that is, if it be prose, put it into verse, (but that takes up some time) and if it be verse
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: transversal, crosswise, thwartwise, crossing, cross, transect, cross-section, horizontal, spanning, cross-sectional, cross-shaped, longitudinal, wide-ranging, broad-based, across-the-board, cross-curricular
Translations
Every language
adj lying across
| Español | transverso |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 가로 garo |
| 中文 | 橫 /横 héng |
| Português | transverso |
| Deutsch | querliegend, quer liegend, quergerichtet, quer gerichtet, quer-, querlaufend |
| Русский | попере́чный poperéčnyj |
adj not tangent
| Deutsch | transversal |
|---|
Talk about this word "transverse." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/transverse. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. transverse. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/transverse "transverse." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/transverse.Cite this
@misc{transverse_2026,
title = {transverse},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/transverse},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
