Skip to the word

Added 9 October 2026

transverse

adjective

In Latin: transversus Wiktionary

adjective Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). More about transverse at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

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.
Made at right angles to the long axis of the body.
Not tangent, so that a nondegenerate angle is formed between the two things intersecting.

noun

Anything that is transverse or athwart, such as a road or a ship's web frame.
The longer, or transverse, axis of an ellipse.

verb

To lie or run across; to cross.
To traverse or thwart.
To overturn.

Origin

Late Middle English, from Latin trānsversus (“turned across; going or lying across or crosswise”). Doublet of transversal.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Back to today's word