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transit

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Passing over, across, or through something.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

tranzit

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈtɹænzɪt

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The conveyance of people or goods from one place to another, especially on a public transportation system; the vehicles used for such conveyance.

  2. The act of passing over, across, or through something.

  3. canadaus

    Any form of transport that can be used by a member of public (who usually pays a fare), as opposed to private ownership of e.g. cars; short form of public transit or mass transit

  4. ukireland

    A Ford Transit van, see Transit.

verb

  1. Cause or enable to pass through

    “The canal will transit hundreds of ships every day.”

  2. Pass across (a sign or house of the zodiac) or pass across (the disk of a celestial body or the meridian of a place)

    “The comet will transit on September 11.”

  3. To pass over, across or through something.

  4. Make a passage or journey from one place to another

  5. To convey people or goods from one place to another, especially by public transport vehicles.

  6. To revolve an instrument about its horizontal axis so as to reverse its direction.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
General English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The conveyance of people or goods from one place to another, especially on a public transportation system; the vehicles used for such conveyance.

Used this way, transit 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 transit

  • “The comet will transit on September 11.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Surveying

rail transit

Transport

public transit

Conveyance

transit system

Other combinations

rapid transitmass transittransit authoritytransit companytransit trade

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • transitivenounDerived noun

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

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • transit declinometernounCompound term

    An instrument for measuring magnetic declination.

  • transit instrumentnounCompound term

    A telescope mounted on an axis running east and west and used to time the transit of a celestial body across the meridian.

  • transit linenounCompound term

    A line providing public transit.

  • transit zonenounCompound term

    A six million square mile area that includes the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern Pacific Ocean.

  • mass rapid transitnounCompound term

    An urban public transit system using underground or elevated trains.

  • public transitnounCompound term

    A public transportation system for moving passengers.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: cause or enable to pass through

pass overpass throughpassageTechnical

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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.