transcend
verb/tɹæn(t)ˈsɛnd/
Etymology From Middle English transcenden, from Old French transcender, from Latin transcendō (“to climb over, step over, surpass, transcend”), from trans (“over”) + scandō (“to climb”); see scan; compare ascend, descend.
1
To pass beyond the limits of something.
- We cannot transcend what we refuse to face.
- such personal popes, emperors, or elective kings, as shall transcend their limitsa. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a Warre with Spaine. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany Works of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. […], London: […] I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, […], published 1629, →OCLC:
1 more example
- 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.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Virmire:
2
To surpass, as in intensity or power; to excel.
- How much her worth transcended all her kind.c. 1698, John Dryden, Epitaph on the Monument of a Fair Maiden Lady:
3
Obsolete To climb; to mount.
- lights in the heavens transcending the region of the clouds
- your Muse soars up to the upper, and transcending that too, takes her fight among the Celestial bodies1655, 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:
- Synonyms
- exceed, overgo, surpass, better, dwarf, eclipse, ascend, excel, forpass, go beyond, outreach, outcompass, outstep, outstrip, overpass, overreach, overstep, overstride, transgress, transcend, trespass
- Antonyms
- fall short of, stop short
- Derived terms
- transcendable, transcendence, transcendency, transcendent, transcendental, transcendentalism, transcendentalist, transcendentally, transcending, transcendingly, transcendingness, transcension, untranscended
- Hyponyms
- clear, cross the line, go too far