TRANSCEND

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does transcend mean? 

• TRANSCEND (verb)
  The verb TRANSCEND has 2 senses:

1. be greater in scope or size than some standard

2. be superior or better than some standard

  Familiarity information: TRANSCEND used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TRANSCEND (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they transcend    ... he / she / it transcends   
Past simple: transcended   
Past participle: transcended   
-ing form: transcending   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be greater in scope or size than some standard

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

exceed; surpass; transcend

Context example:

Their loyalty exceeds their national bonds

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "transcend"):

overgrow (grow too large)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

transcendence (the state of excelling or surpassing or going beyond usual limits)

transcendent (beyond and outside the ordinary range of human experience or understanding)

transcendent (exceeding or surpassing usual limits especially in excellence)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be superior or better than some standard

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

exceed; go past; overstep; pass; top; transcend

Context example:

She topped her performance of last year

Hypernyms (to "transcend" is one way to...):

excel; stand out; surpass (distinguish oneself)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

transcendence; transcendency (the state of excelling or surpassing or going beyond usual limits)

transcendent (beyond and outside the ordinary range of human experience or understanding)

transcendent (exceeding or surpassing usual limits especially in excellence)

 Context examples 

As somebody has said, phenomenal knowledge cannot transcend phenomena.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

How could I put into speech a something felt, a something like the strains of music heard in sleep, a something that convinced yet transcended utterance?

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The study has emphasized that the use of large megalithic funerary structures shows, for the first time, the desire of human societies of transcending their present by creating a sacred landscape based on collective memory and the cult of ancestors.

(The necropolis of El Barranquete in Níjar (Almería), proven to have been used for funerary rituals throughout the Bronze Age, University of Granada)

Here was neither marriage nor death: therefore, it was something transcending experience and well worth waiting for.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He had forgotten immortality of late, and the trend of his scientific reading had been away from it; but here, in Ruth's eyes, he read an argument without words that transcended all worded arguments.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It transcends genius.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)