transmigration
Americannoun
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the act of transmigrating.
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the passage of a soul after death into another body; metempsychosis.
Etymology
Origin of transmigration
1250–1300; Middle English transmigracion < Late Latin trānsmigrātiōn- (stem of trānsmigrātiō ) removal. See trans-, migration
Explanation
Transmigration is the movement of a soul into another body after death. Transmigration is related to reincarnation. If you believe your cat is your reincarnated grandmother, then you believe in transmigration. The pieces of this word might look familiar — trans means “across,” as in transport or transcontinental, and migration is the act of moving, like birds flying south. Transmigration used to just mean what it sounds like, as in “move from one place to another,” but later it took on the deeper meaning of a soul moving into another body after death. Various religions are associated with different types of transmigration.
Vocabulary lists containing transmigration
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Musicologists have discovered the origin of the rhythmic patterns of what became this Baroque era vehicle for the transmigration of souls in dances carried by enslaved Africans to 16th century Spain.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 30, 2025
It is interesting that Sotion argues that you don't need to accept transmigration to refrain from eating meat.
From Salon • Nov. 27, 2024
This informs the belief that an individual will bear a future burden for harms committed in the present through the process of samsara, or transmigration and rebirth of the soul.
From Textbooks • Jun. 15, 2022
Knausgaard chews on notions of faith, free will, the transmigration of souls, the nature of angels, on meaning and nothingness in Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and Rilke’s poetry.
From New York Times • Sep. 20, 2021
He admitted that he could never again accept the Hindu doctrine of transmigration.
From The Outcaste by Penny, F. E.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
