transitional

[ tran-zish-uh-nl, ‐-sish‐ ]

adjective

1. of or relating to a transition from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc., to another: transitional housing for people with serious mental illness.

   transitional governments;

   transitional housing for people with serious mental illness.

Other Words From

• tran·si·tion·al·ly adverb
• non·tran·si·tion·al adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of transitional¹

First recorded in 1670–80; transition ( def ) + -al ¹( def )

Example Sentences

The past year has been a transitional one for FX, which got shuffled to Disney when the latter megacorp bought Fox’s entertainment divisions in 2019.

From Time

Yemeni women led the change in the peaceful revolution, and also in the transitional period.

From Time

Soon, colostrum is replaced by “transitional milk,” which is thinner but contains more fat and lactose.

From MIT Technology Review

For Americans, this usually occurs around age 51, but perimenopause—the preceding transitional phase—can last anywhere from several months to ten years and can begin as early as your thirties.

From Outside Online

The two had been renting a bedroom in transitional housing for veterans in Kansas City, Missouri, since January, paying $600 per month for their month-to-month lease.

From MIT Technology Review

Was that a transitional moment for you from music to comedy?

From The Daily Beast

Failing to forge lasting stability would leave us, this author and his like-minded aides, to call for a Transitional Council.

From The Daily Beast

A transitional government was elected and a national dialogue took place to address key grievances.

From The Daily Beast

Linge says then, in late 2011, that the National Transitional Council is supposed to be governing Libya.

From The Daily Beast

Industry will then, under the proposed rules, have a two-year transitional period over which to comply with the new requirements.

From The Daily Beast

It is the transitional link between the lancet and tracery systems.

From Project Gutenberg

But the mind fails to realize the possibility of the transitional forms whose existence is assumed by the hypothesis.

From Project Gutenberg

The fish fauna of the area studied is transitional between the Ozarkian and Great Plains faunas.

From Project Gutenberg

II., as belonging to a style of great importance in the transitional architecture of Venice.

From Project Gutenberg

The transitional form, in which the ornamental line is straight, is the centre or root of both.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• capricious
• fickle
• fluctuating
• mercurial
• protean
• shifting
• unpredictable
• unsettled
• unstable
• varying
• volatile