transitive

English

Set theory: An example of a transitivity relation.

Etymology

From Latin transitivus, from transitus, from trans (“across”) + itus, from eo (“to go”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

transitive (not comparable)

1. 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.

2. Affected by transference of signification.
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of John Stuart Mill to this entry?)

     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.

3. (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.

4. (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.

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

• Catalan: transitiu (ca)
• Spanish: transitivo (es)

• Ukrainian: перехідний (uk) (perexidnyj)

affected by transference of signification

• Dutch: overdrachtelijk (nl)

• Ukrainian: образний (uk) (obraznyj)

grammar, of a verb: taking an object or objects

• Albanian: kalimtar (sq)
• Arabic: متعدٍ (ar) (muta`addin) (indefinite)
• Catalan: transitiu (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 及物 (cmn) (jíwù)

• Czech: přechodný (cs)
• Dutch: overgankelijk (nl), transitief (nl)
• Esperanto: transitiva (eo)
• Finnish: transitiivinen, siirtyvä
• French: transitif (fr)
• Galician: transitivo (gl)
• German: transitiv (de)
• Italian: transitivo (it)

• Japanese: 他動 (ja) (たどう, tadō)
• Norwegian: transitiv (no)
• Novial: transitiv
• Polish: przechodni (pl)
• Portuguese: transitivo (pt)
• Romanian: tranzitiv (ro)
• Russian: переходный (ru) (perexódnyj) 
• Serbo-Croatian: prijélazan (sh)
• Spanish: transitivo (es)
• Turkish: geçişli (tr)
• Ukrainian: перехідний (uk) (perexidnyj), перехідне дієслово (uk) (perexidne dijeslovo), форма перехідного дієслова (uk) (forma perexidnoho dijeslova)
• Volapük: loveädik (vo)

set theory, of a relation on a set

• Czech: tranzitivní (cs)
• French: transitif (fr)
• German: transitiv (de)
• Japanese: 推移的 (ja) (すいいてき, suiï-teki)
• Polish: przechodni (pl)

• Romanian: tranzitiv (ro)
• Serbo-Croatian: trȁnzitīvan (sh)
• Spanish: transitivo (es)
• Ukrainian: перехідний (uk) (perexidnyj)

Derived terms

• ditransitive
• monotransitive
• complex transitive
• transitively
• transitiveness
• transitive verb

See also

• reflexive
• symmetric

References

• transitive in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA: /tʁɑ̃.zi.tiv/, X-SAMPA: /tRA~.zi.tiv/
• Rhymes: -iv
• Homophone: transitives

Adjective

transitive

1. feminine form of transitif

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Italian

Adjective

transitive pl

1. feminine form of transitivo

Anagrams

• intervista, intestarvi, intraviste, rinvestita, rinvitaste, strinatevi, vetrinista

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Latin

Adjective

transitīve

1. vocative masculine singular of transitīvus