Transverse

Quick meaning: Transverse is an adjective meaning (anatomy) Made at right angles to the long axis of the body.

Meaning

(anatomy) Made at right angles to the long axis of the body.

More Meanings

1. Anything that is transverse or athwart, such as a road or a ship's web frame.
2. (geometry) The longer, or transverse, axis of an ellipse.
3. To lie or run across; to cross.
4. To traverse or thwart.
5. Situated or lying across; side to side, relative to some defined "forward" direction; perpendicular or slanted relative to the "forward" direction; identified with movement across areas.
6. (geometry) (of an intersection) Not tangent, so that a nondegenerate angle is formed between the two things intersecting. (For the general definition, see Transversality (mathematics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia .)
7. (obsolete) Not in direct line of descent; collateral.

Example Sentences

Unlike the older trains, the new units have walk-through carriages and longitudinal rather than transverse seating.

In love, it is said, all stratagems are fair, and many little ladies transverse the axiom by applying it to discover the secrets of their friends.

The units have transverse seats, two and three astride the passageway with single or double longitudinal seats alongside the two entrance vestibules in each car.

And so long shall her censures, when justly passed, have their effect: how then can they be altered or transversed, suspended or superseded, by a temporal government, that must vanish and come to nothing?

Word Forms

• transverses
• transversing
• transversed

Synonyms for transverse

Depending on context, synonyms include cross, transversal, crosswise, thwartwise, crossing.

Antonyms for transverse

Common opposites include longitudinal.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include transversal, crosswise, thwartwise, crossing, cross, transect.

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