transgression
noun
Simple meaning
A violation of a law, duty or commandment.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tranzgrehshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
tɹænzɡˈɹɛʃən
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.
noun
The act of transgressing; the violation of a law or a duty or moral principle
“The boy was punished for the transgressions of his father.”
A violation of a law, duty or commandment.
geology
The spreading of the sea over land as evidenced by the deposition of marine strata over terrestrial strata
geology
A relative rise in sea level resulting in deposition of marine strata over terrestrial strata.
An act that goes beyond generally accepted boundaries.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An act that goes beyond generally accepted boundaries.
Used this way, transgression is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use transgression
- “The boy was punished for the transgressions of his father.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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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.