Standard Lemma guide

transitive

adj · noun · 10 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • trăn'zĭtĭv
  • /ˈtɹænzɪtɪv/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Making a transit or passage.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Affected by transference of signification.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Taking a direct object or objects.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Topics: grammar, human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

Examples

  • The English verb "to notice" is a transitive verb, because we say things like "She noticed a problem".

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: intransitive

4

adj

Meaning 4

Having the property that if an element a is related to b and b is related to c, then a is necessarily related to c.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Topics: mathematics, sciences, set-theory

Examples

  • "Is an ancestor of" is a transitive relation: if Alice is an ancestor of Bob, and Bob is an ancestor of Carol, then Alice is an ancestor of Carol.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: intransitive, nontransitive

5

adj

Meaning 5

Such that, for any two elements of the acted-upon set, some group element maps the first to the second.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Topics: algebra, mathematics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

adj

Meaning 6

Such that, for any two vertices there exists an automorphism which maps one to the other.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Topics: graph-theory, mathematics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

adj

Meaning 7

Of a set of dice: not having the intransitive property.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Topics: mathematics, probability, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

8

noun

Meaning 8

A transitive verb.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: grammar, human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

9

adjective

Meaning 9

designating a verb that requires a direct object to complete the meaning

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: intransitive

10

noun

Meaning 10

a verb (or verb construction) that requires an object in order to be grammatical

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: transitive verb, transitive verb form

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: verb

Narrower terms: doubly transitive verb, doubly transitive verb form

History

Etymology

From Latin trānsitīvus, from trānsitus, from trāns (“across”) + itus, from eō (“to go”).

Across languages

Translations

100 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: преходен (prehoden) — making a transit or passage
  • Catalan: transitiu — making a transit or passage
  • Finnish: siirtyvä — making a transit or passage
  • Finnish: kulkeva — making a transit or passage
  • Portuguese: transitivo — making a transit or passage
  • Portuguese: transitório — making a transit or passage
  • Romanian: tranzitiv — making a transit or passage
  • Russian: перехо́дный (perexódnyj) — making a transit or passage
  • Spanish: transitivo — making a transit or passage
  • Ukrainian: перехідни́й (perexidnýj) — making a transit or passage
  • Dutch: overdrachtelijk — affected by transference of signification
  • Finnish: muuttuva — affected by transference of signification
  • Ukrainian: о́бразний (óbraznyj) — affected by transference of signification
  • Albanian: kalimtar — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Arabic: مُتَعَدٍّ (mutaʕaddin) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Armenian: անցողական (ancʻoġakan) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Azerbaijani: təsirli — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Belarusian: перахо́дны (pjeraxódny) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Bulgarian: прехо́ден (prehóden) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Catalan: transitiu — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Chinese Mandarin: 及物 (jíwù) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Czech: přechodný — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Danish: transitiv — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Dutch: overgankelijk — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Dutch: transitief — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Esperanto: transitiva — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Finnish: transitiivinen — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • French: transitif — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Galician: transitivo — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Georgian: გარდამავალი (gardamavali) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • German: transitiv — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Greek: μεταβατικός (metavatikós) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Ancient Greek: μεταβατικός (metabatikós) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Ancient Greek: ἀλλοπαθής (allopathḗs) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Ancient Greek: διαβιβαστικός (diabibastikós) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Hebrew: יוֹצֵא (yotsé) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Hindi: सकर्मक (sakarmak) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Hungarian: tárgyas — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Irish: aistreach — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Italian: transitivo — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Japanese: 他動 (tadō) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Korean: 타동 (tadong) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Northern Kurdish: têper — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Northern Kurdish: gerguhêz — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Macedonian: преоден (preoden) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Malayalam: സകർമ്മകക്രിയ (sakaṟmmakakriya) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Mongolian: тусах (tusax) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Norman: transitif — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Norwegian: transitiv — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Occitan: transitiu — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Polish: przechodni — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Portuguese: transitivo — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Romanian: tranzitiv — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Russian: перехо́дный (perexódnyj) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Scottish Gaelic: aisigeach — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Scottish Gaelic: aistreach — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Scottish Gaelic: asdolach — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Serbo-Croatian: пре́лазан — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Serbo-Croatian: прије́лазан — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Serbo-Croatian: prélazan — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Serbo-Croatian: prijélazan — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Slovak: prechodný — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Slovene: prehoden — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Spanish: transitivo — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Swedish: transitiv — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Turkish: geçişli — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Ukrainian: перехідни́й (perexidnýj) — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Vietnamese: ngoại — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Volapük: loveädik — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Welsh: anghyflawn — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Zazaki: ravêrdın — grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
  • Chinese Mandarin: 传递性 (chuándìxìng) — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • Czech: tranzitivní — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • Esperanto: transitiva — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • Finnish: transitiivinen — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • French: transitif — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • German: transitiv — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • Icelandic: gegnvirkur — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • Japanese: 推移的 (suiiteki) — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • Polish: przechodni — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • Portuguese: transitivo — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • Romanian: tranzitiv — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • Russian: перехо́дный (perexódnyj) — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • Serbo-Croatian: тра̏нзитӣван — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • Serbo-Croatian: trȁnzitīvan — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • Spanish: transitivo — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • Swedish: transitiv — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • Tagalog: palipat — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • Ukrainian: перехідни́й (perexidnýj) — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • Welsh: trosaidd — set theory, of a relation on a set
  • Finnish: transitiivinen — of a group action
  • French: transitif — of a group action
  • Polish: tranzytywny — of a group action
  • Portuguese: transitivo — of a group action
  • Spanish: transitivo — of a group action
  • Esperanto: transitiva — of a graph
  • Finnish: transitiivinen — of a graph
  • French: transitif — of a graph
  • Hebrew: טרנזיטיבי — of a graph
  • Spanish: transitivo — of a graph
Real reading context

transitive in complete knowledge articles