transverse

Meaning

Adj

1. 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.
2. Made at right angles to the long axis of the body.
3. (of an intersection) Not tangent, so that a nondegenerate angle is formed between the two things intersecting. (For the general definition, see Transversality (mathematics).)
4. (obsolete) Not in direct line of descent; collateral.

Noun

1. Anything that is transverse or athwart.
2. The longer, or transverse, axis of an ellipse.

Verb

1. To lie or run across; to cross.
2. To traverse or thwart.
3. To overturn.
4. To alter or transform.
5. (obsolete) To change from prose into verse, or from verse into prose.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/tɹanzˈvɜːs/

Etymology

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

Sentences

Elongation in hydrostats is caused by the contraction of transverse or helical musculature arrangements .