adj. 1. Abbr. trans. or tr. or t. Grammar Expressing an action carried from the subject to the object; requiring a direct object to complete meaning. Used of a verb or verb construction. 2. Characterized by or involving transition. 3. Logic & Mathematics Of or relating to a binary relation such that, whenever one element is related to a second element and the second element is related to a third element, then the first element is also related to the third element. Examples of transitive relations are "less than" for real numbers (a < b and b < c implies a < c) and divisibility for integers (a divides b and b divides c mean that a divides c). n. Grammar A transitive verb. [Late Latin trānsitīvus, passing over (translation of Greek diabibastikos), from trānsitus, past participle of trānsīre, to go over; see TRANSIENT.] transi·tive·ly adv. transi·tive·ness, tran′si·tivi·ty n. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.