transgress
verb
Simple meaning
To act in violation of some law.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tranzgrehsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
tɹænzɡˈɹɛs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To act in violation of some law.
Spread over land, especially along a subsiding shoreline
“The sea transgresses along the West coast of the island.”
intransitiveconstrued with against
To commit an offense; to sin.
Commit a sin; violate a law of God or a moral law
intransitiveof the sea
To spread over land along a shoreline; to inundate.
transitive
To exceed or overstep some limit or boundary.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To act in violation of some law.
Used this way, transgress is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Law/legal
- Government/politics
- Academic writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use transgress
- “The sea transgresses along the West coast of the island.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The act of transgressing.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.