Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Transitive
1.
Having the power of making a transit, or passage.
[R.]
Bacon.
2.
Effected by transference of signification.
By far the greater part of the
transitive
or derivative applications of words depend on casual and unaccountable caprices of the feelings or the fancy. Stewart.
3.
(Gram.)
Passing over to an object; expressing an action which is not limited to the agent or subject, but which requires an object to complete the sense;
– as, a
. transitive
verb, for example, he holds
the bookTran′si-tive-ly
, adv.
Tran′si-tive-ness
, Noun.
Webster 1828 Edition
Transitive
TRANS'ITIVE
,Adj.
1.
In grammar, a transitive verb is one which is or may be followed by an object; a verb expressing an action which passes from the agent to an object, from the subject which does, to the object on which it is done. Thus, 'Cicero wrote letters to Atticus.' In this sentence,the act of writing, performed by Cicero, the agent, terminates on letters, the object. All verbs not passive, may be arranged in two classes, transitive and intransitive. In English, this division is correct and complete.Definition 2024
transitive
transitive
English
Set theory: An example of a transitivity relation.
Adjective
transitive (not comparable)
- Making a transit or passage.
- (Can we date this quote?), Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Poet:
- For all symbols are fluxional; all language is vehicular and transitive, and is good, as ferries and horses are, for conveyance, not as farms and houses are, for homestead.
-
- Affected by transference of signification.
- (Can we date this quote?), John Stuart Mill, (Please provide the title of the work):
- By far the greater part of the transitive or derivative applications of words depend on casual and unaccountable caprices of the feelings or the fancy.
-
- (grammar, of a verb) Taking an object or objects.
- The English verb "to notice" is a transitive verb, because we say things like "She noticed a problem".
- (Can we date this quote?), G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy:
- Men have tried to turn "revolutionise" from a transitive to an intransitive verb.
- (set theory, of a relation on a set) Having the property that if an element x is related to y and y is related to z, then x is necessarily related to z.
- "Is an ancestor of" is a transitive relation: if Alice is an ancestor of Bob, and Bob is an ancestor of Carol, then Alice is an ancestor of Carol.
- (algebra, of a group action) Such that, for any two elements of the acted-upon set, some group element maps the first to the second.
Antonyms
- (grammar, of a verb: taking an object): intransitive
- (set theory, of a relation on a set): intransitive, nontransitive
Translations
making a transit or passage
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affected by transference of signification
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grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects
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set theory, of a relation on a set
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of a group action
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Derived terms
- ditransitive
- monotransitive
- complex transitive
- transitively
- transitiveness
- transitive verb
See also
References
- transitive in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /tʁɑ̃.zi.tiv/
- Rhymes: -iv
- Homophone: transitives
Adjective
transitive
- feminine singular of transitif