transition

American  

[tran-zish-uhn, -sish-] / trænˈzɪʃ ən, -ˈsɪʃ- /

noun

• transitions
  plural

1. 

   movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc., to another; change.

   The transition from adolescence to adulthood can be difficult.

   Synonyms:

   conversion, passing, changeover

2. Music.

   1. a passing from one key to another; modulation.

   2. a brief modulation; a modulation used in passing.

   3. a sudden, unprepared modulation.

3. a passage from one scene to another by sound effects, music, etc., as in a television program, theatrical production, or the like.

4. Also called gender transition.  the process by which a transgender person comes to openly express their gender identity, including changes to their way of dressing, acting, or speaking, to their pronouns, name, or legal gender marker, or to their physical characteristics via hormone therapy and surgery.

   When I began my transition, there was very little information online about testosterone.

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verb (used without object)

1. to make a transition.

   He had difficulty transitioning from enlisted man to officer.

2. (of a transgender person) to move toward openly expressing one's gender identity, often by making changes to one's way of dressing, acting, or speaking, to one's pronouns, name, or legal gender marker, or to one's physical characteristics via hormone therapy and surgery.

   My friend is transitioning socially, but she doesn't want hormone therapy or surgery.

transition British  

/ trænˈzɪʃən /

noun

1. change or passage from one state or stage to another

2. the period of time during which something changes from one state or stage to another

3. music

   1. a movement from one key to another; modulation

   2. a linking passage between two divisions in a composition; bridge

4. Also called: transitional.  a style of architecture that was used in western Europe in the late 11th and early 12th century, characterized by late Romanesque forms combined with early Gothic details

5. physics

   1. any change that results in a change of physical properties of a substance or system, such as a change of phase or molecular structure

   2. a change in the configuration of an atomic nucleus, involving either a change in energy level resulting from the emission of a gamma-ray photon or a transformation to another element or isotope

6. a sentence, passage, etc, that connects a topic to one that follows or that links sections of a written work

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• transitional
  adjective
• transitionary
  adjective
• transitionally
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• transitions
  plural

Etymology

Origin of transition

First recorded in 1545–55; from Latin trānsitiōn-, stem of trānsitiō “passage, transit across,” from trānsit(us) “gone across” (past participle of trānsīre “to go across, pass over”; cf. transit ) + -iō -ion

Explanation

A transition is a change from one thing to the next, either in action or state of being—as in a job transition or as in the much more dramatic example of a caterpillar making a transition into a butterfly. Transition is awfully reassuring in its tidy reliance on regular forms. Trans means "cross," so when you hear it at the beginning of a word you know that it indicates crossing, as in transatlantic or translate. An odd thing happening with transition lately is that it is transitioning from its familiar form as a noun to a newer life as a verb, as in “We’re going to transition Gloria to that new job.”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

transition transitions

Some executives considering investing in Venezuela have sought her out, said members of her team, seeking assurances that deals struck with the current government would be honored in any transition.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026

But she'd always wanted to visit Ireland, and she found herself exhausted by the local dating scene while navigating a career transition.

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026

One reason Weed sees upside for Zscaler is that the company is emerging from a transition into a new sales model — a process that initially cost it some customers.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026

Bruno Fernandes, central to all of this, is a strong passer when attacking in transition, finding runners ahead of him – a role in which he broke the Premier League assist record last term.

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026

She talked to him about growth and fear and the self in transition and women's spiritual quest.

From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez

I struggle with transitions, and Monday is the day that wrenches me most abruptly from one mode into another: weekend to workweek, spaciousness to schedules, vague possibility to the tyranny of the calendar.

From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026

The report proposes 10 priority transitions, ranging from reducing black-carbon emissions and expanding glacier monitoring to improving disaster early-warning systems and changing the way tourism is developed in the mountains.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

The transitions weren’t seamless, but they showed how the industry had changed since 2001.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

“CEO transitions are always a risk,” namely for companies “that are driven by a singular vision,” Morningstar chief equity market strategist Michael Field said.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026

And Colin thought that Starnes might benefit from a lesson from his eleventh-grade English teacher Mr. Holtsclaw, who taught them about transitions.

From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green

Related Words

• changeover
• conversion
• development
• evolution
• growth
• passage
• progress
• progression
• shift
• transformation
• upheaval