transit

American  

[tran-zit, -sit] / ˈtræn zɪt, -sɪt /

noun

• transits
  plural

1. the act or fact of passing across or through; passage from one place to another.

   The area continues to be affected by the transit of illegal drugs bound for major cities.

2. conveyance or transportation of people or goods from one place to another, especially local public transportation.

   Improving city transit is a high priority for the new mayor.

3. a transition or change.

   The transit of autumn to winter saw woodpecker season in full swing and Canada geese on the move.

4. Astronomy.

   1. the passage of a heavenly body across the meridian of a given location or through the field of a telescope.

      The experiments lasted long enough for us to detect the transit of black holes with a mass of up to 10 times that of our sun.

   2. the passage of Mercury or Venus across the disk of the sun, or of a satellite or its shadow across the face of its primary.

      In June 2012, a NASA webcast enabled the public to view the transit of Venus across the solar disk.

   3. meridian circle.

5. Astrology. the passage of a planet through one of the twelve houses or divisions of the celestial sphere or across the position held by another planet in a person’s birth chart.

   The transit of Mars is happening in the third house for you, so expect a shift in things concerning home and family.

6. Also called transit theodolite, transit instrument.  Surveying. a type of theodolite having a telescope that can be flipped vertically to reverse the direction of view: used for measuring horizontal and often vertical angles, sometimes with the ability to take successive measurements of the same angle and average them for greater accuracy.

7. U.S. Aerospace. Transit, one of a series of satellites for providing positional data to ships and aircraft.

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verb (used with object)

• transits,
  present (3rd person singular)
• transited,
  past participle,  past
• transiting
  present participle

1. to pass across or through.

   Many millions of oil barrels transit the Suez Canal every day.

   It’s fairly easy to intercept emails as they transit the internet.

2. Surveying, Astronomy. to flip (a telescope) vertically in order to reverse the direction of view.

3. Astronomy. to cross (a meridian, celestial body, etc.).

   Mercury transits the sun about 13 or 14 times each century.

verb (used without object)

• transits,
  present (3rd person singular)
• transited,
  past participle,  past
• transiting
  present participle

1. to pass over, through, into, or out of something.

   Are you planning on transiting through the United States?

   Attackers can hijack your data as it transits to and from your system.

2. Astronomy. to make a passage across a meridian, celestial body, etc..

   The probe was looking for planets transiting across the face of stars.

idioms

1. in transit. see in transit.

transit British  

/ ˈtrænsɪt, ˈtrænz- /

noun

1. 1. the passage or conveyance of goods or people

   2. ( as modifier )

      a transit visa

2. a change or transition

3. a route

4. astronomy

   1. the passage of a celestial body or satellite across the face of a relatively larger body as seen from the earth

   2. the apparent passage of a celestial body across the meridian, caused by the earth's diurnal rotation

5. astrology the passage of a planet across some special point on the zodiac

6. while being conveyed; during passage

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verb

1. to make a transit through or over (something)

2. astronomy to make a transit across (a celestial body or the meridian)

3. to cause (the telescope of a surveying instrument) to turn over or (of such a telescope) to be turned over in a vertical plane so that it points in the opposite direction

transit Scientific  

/ trăn′sĭt /

1. The passage of a smaller celestial body or its shadow across the disk of a larger celestial body. As observed from Earth, Mercury and Venus are the only planets of the solar system that make transits of the Sun, because they are the only planets with orbits that lie between Earth and the Sun. Mercury makes an average of 13 transits of the Sun each century. Transits of Venus across the Sun are much rarer, with only 7 of them having occurred between 1639 and 2004. In contrast, transits of Jupiter's moons across its disk are common occurrences.

2. Compare occultation

3. The passage of a celestial body across the celestial meridian (the great circle on the celestial sphere passing through the celestial poles and an observer's zenith). For any observer, the object is at its highest in the sky at its transit of the observer's meridian.

4. See more at celestial meridian

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• transitable
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• transits
  plural

Participles

• transiting
  present
• transited
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• transit
  simple
• transits
  simple
• have transited
  perfect
• has transited
  perfect
• am transiting
  progressive
• are transiting
  progressive
• is transiting
  progressive
• have been transiting
  perfect progressive
• has been transiting
  perfect progressive

Past

• transited
  simple
• had transited
  perfect
• was transiting
  progressive
• were transiting
  progressive
• had been transiting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will transit
  simple
• will have transited
  perfect
• will be transiting
  progressive
• will have been transiting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of transit

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English (noun and verb), from Latin trānsitus “crossing, passage,” noun use of past participle of trānsīre “to go across, pass over,” from trāns- trans- + īre “to go”

Explanation

Transit means “journey,” and saying you’re "in transit" means you’re on your way somewhere. Before we had cell phones, one of the upsides of being in transit was that no one could get in touch with you. Transit may be familiar to you from the phrase mass transit. While it sometimes seems like “mass transit” is synonymous with “unreliable, crowded and inefficient,” the phrase just means "public transportation." The first instance of transit being used in this sense was in the 19th century, and people have been complaining ever since. Transit is related to the word transition, which refers to a change from one state or condition to another.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

transit transits transited transiting

Much of the transit of goods has been redirected to land routes, which are now suffering severe bottlenecks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026

Metro might cede “the massive responsibility of delivering a spectator and workforce transit system” to LA28.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026

Generally speaking, however, tanker convoys, escorted by air and sea by the U.S. military, do the perilous transit through the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Oman.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026

A transit occurs when a planet passes in front of its star and causes a small temporary drop in the starlight seen from Earth.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026

But the idea simmered and when the next transit came due in 1761, nearly two decades after Halley’s death, the scientific world was ready–indeed, more ready than it had been for an astronomical event before.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

Most confirmed exoplanets have instead been found through transits.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026

Hormuz transits are hard to measure, mostly because ships transiting the strategic waterway turn off their GPS-like signals for security measures and to avoid Iranian attacks.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026

We reduce daily transits so we don’t have to tell the population, “There’s not enough water for you guys.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026

We also told the shipping industry that we were dropping from 36 transits per day to 34 on September 4th and then to 32 on September 15th.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026

Unfortunately, transits of Venus, as they are known, are an irregular occurrence.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

On Tuesday, for example, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said 17 million barrels of crude oil transited Hormuz Monday, which is not far off the 20 million barrels daily average before the disruption began in March.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026

Axios reported that around 40 ships transited the strait over the weekend, while The New York Times reported U.S. diplomats would return to the Middle East.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

And despite the overall lull in the fighting, Iran fired drones at oil tankers from the United Arab Emirates, another U.S. ally, as they transited the Strait of Hormuz this month.

From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026

Other shipping companies have transited the Arctic passage before, with Denmark's Maersk the first to do so in 2018.

From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026

She has transited the Atlantic to attend our Congress, but can only be present at this evening's Inauguratory, as she must be in New York again before sundown to-morrow.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 62, Jan 27, 1872 by Various

Signs that tankers are transiting the Strait of Hormuz and renewed diplomatic efforts have encouraged oil traders.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026

Each transiting ship requiers about 200 million liters of water, which is then discharged into the sea.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

The Saudi national shipping company, Bahri, confirmed on Wednesday that its vessel Sidr was "involved in a security incident while transiting the Strait of Hormuz".

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026

It only needs to persuade shipowners, captains and insurers that the risk of encountering a mine while transiting the strait is too high to make the trip.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026

Every nation bears responsibility for the people and goods transiting its borders.

From National Strategy for Combating Terrorism February 2003 by United States. Executive Office of the President

Related Words

• passage
• shipment
• transport
• travel