transfer

American  

[trans-fur, trans-fer, trans-fer] / trænsˈfɜr, ˈtræns fər, ˈtræns fər /

verb (used with object)

• transfers,
  present (3rd person singular)
• transferred,
  past participle,  past
• transferring
  present participle

1. 

   to convey or remove from one place, person, etc., to another.

   He transferred the package from one hand to the other.

2. to cause to pass from one person to another, as thought, qualities, or power; transmit.

3. Law. to make over the possession or control of.

   to transfer a title to land.

4. to imprint, impress, or otherwise convey (a drawing, design, pattern, etc.) from one surface to another.

---

verb (used without object)

• transfers,
  present (3rd person singular)
• transferred,
  past participle,  past
• transferring
  present participle

1. to remove oneself from one place to another.

   to transfer from the New York office to London.

2. to withdraw from one school, college, or the like, and enter another.

   I transferred from Rutgers to Tulane.

3. to be moved from one place to another.

   to transfer to overseas duty.

4. to change by means of a transfer from one bus, train, or the like, to another.

noun

• transfers
  plural

1. a means or system of transferring.

2. an act of transferring.

3. the fact of being transferred.

4. a point or place for transferring.

5. a ticket entitling a passenger to continue a journey on another bus, train, or the like.

6. a drawing, design, pattern, or the like, that is or may be transferred from one surface to another, usually by direct contact.

7. a person who changes or is changed from one college, military unit, business department, etc., to another.

8. Law. a conveyance, by sale, gift, or otherwise, of real or personal property, to another.

9. Finance. the act of having the ownership of a stock or registered bond transferred.

10. Also called transfer of training.  Psychology. the positive or negative influence of prior learning on subsequent learning.

11. Also called language transfer.  Linguistics. the application of native-language rules in attempted performance in a second language, in some cases resulting in deviations from target-language norms and in other cases facilitating second-language acquisition.

adjective

1. of, relating to, or involving transfer payments.

transfer British  

verb

1. to change or go or cause to change or go from one thing, person, or point to another

   they transferred from the Park Hotel to the Imperial

   she transferred her affections to her dog

2. to change (buses, trains, etc)

3. law to make over (property, etc) to another; convey

4. to displace (a drawing, design, etc) from one surface to another

5. (of a football player, esp a professional) to change clubs or (of a club, manager, etc) to sell or release (a player) to another club

6. to leave one school, college, etc, and enrol at another

7. to change (the meaning of a word, etc), esp by metaphorical extension

---

noun

1. the act, process, or system of transferring, or the state of being transferred

2. 1. a person or thing that transfers or is transferred

   2. ( as modifier )

      a transfer student

3. a design or drawing that is transferred from one surface to another, as by ironing a printed design onto cloth

4. law the passing of title to property or other right from one person to another by act of the parties or by operation of law; conveyance

5. finance

   1. the act of transferring the title of ownership to shares or registered bonds in the books of the issuing enterprise

   2. ( as modifier )

      transfer deed

      transfer form

6. any document or form effecting or regulating a transfer

7. a ticket that allows a passenger to change routes

Usage

Where does transfer come from? Transfer is an excellent example of how a little knowledge of Latin can go a long way. Transfer entered English around 1350–40. It ultimately derives from the Latin verb trānsferre, which principally meant “to carry or bring across.” The verb is composed of two parts. The first part is trāns-, a prefix based on the adverb and preposition trāns, meaning “across, beyond, through.” The second part is ferre, a verb meaning “to bear, carry,” among many other senses. The English verb bear, as in “bearing a load,” is actually an etymological cousin to the Latin ferre. Trāns- and ferre appear in many other English words. Let’s start with ferre. Prefer comes from the Latin praeferre, “to bear or set before” (learn more at pre-, preference). Refer comes from the Latin referre, “to bring back” (re-, reference). Infer comes from inferre, “to bring in” (in-, inference). This next origin may put a new spin on the word for you: suffer comes from sufferre, literally “to bear under,” with suf- a variant of sub- “under.” Defer and deference ultimately comes from—slight curveball here—differre, “to bear apart, carry away.” Differre is also the source of differ, different, and difference. Now for trāns-. Trāns- was incredibly productive in Latin. That means it was used to produce many new words, especially verbs (and their related forms) that have made their way into English, including:

• transact
• transcend
• transcribe
• transfigure
• transfix
• transform
• transfuse
• transmit
• transpire

Does knowing that trāns- means “across, beyond, through” shed any new light on what these words mean?Some other common words directly derived from Latin and featuring trāns- are transit, translucent, and transparent. Trāns-, naturalized as trans-, is also very productive in English. Some familiar examples include transconintental, trans-fat, and transgender. Dig deeper Translate is another word related to transfer—and not just because they both feature the trans- prefix. Now, English has irregular verbs: saw is the past tense of see, for instance, and bought is the past tense of buy. Latin had irregular verbs, too, as do many other languages. Without getting too technical, the verb ferre (meaning, if you’ll recall, “to carry”) formed past tenses based on tulī (“I carried”), and formed part participles based on lātus. That means translate is derived from the past participle form of transfer: trānslātus, literally “carried across,” as in a text that has been copied over. Isn’t it wild how so many words are related? Yep, relate—along with relationship, relation, and many other words—comes from the past participle form of referre (“to carry back,” source of refer), which was relātus.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nontransferability
  noun
• retransfer
  noun
• transferability
  noun
• transferrer
  noun
• retransfer
  verb (used with object)
• nontransferable
  adjective
• transferable
  adjective
• transferrable
  adjective
• untransferable
  adjective
• untransferred
  adjective
• untransferring
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• transfers
  plural

Participles

• transferring
  present
• transferred
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• transfer
  simple
• transfers
  simple
• have transferred
  perfect
• has transferred
  perfect
• am transferring
  progressive
• are transferring
  progressive
• is transferring
  progressive
• have been transferring
  perfect progressive
• has been transferring
  perfect progressive

Past

• transferred
  simple
• had transferred
  perfect
• was transferring
  progressive
• were transferring
  progressive
• had been transferring
  perfect progressive

Future

• will transfer
  simple
• will have transferred
  perfect
• will be transferring
  progressive
• will have been transferring
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of transfer

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English transferren, from Latin trānsferre, from trāns trans- + ferre “to bring, carry”; see also bear ¹

Explanation

If you are moving something from one place to another, like transferring money from your savings account to your checking account, you are transferring it. Or, if you've been moved from one job site to another — you, my friend, have been transferred. Transfer can also be a noun that means the act of moving something from one form or location to another, so that money that was shifted from one account to another is considered a transfer. If you change something from one form to another, you can say that you transferred it. "Her mother had transferred all the old 8mm home movies to video tape. Now she'd have to transfer them again using a more modern technology."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

transfer transfers transferred transferring

U.S. officials said VTB Bank has provided clearing accounts to the Central Bank of Iran and helped transfer billions in frozen Iranian assets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

My house and car are set up as transfer-on-death, as are my bank accounts, and they will all transfer to my son upon my death.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026

After they trained the spotlight on James Madison transfer Wayne Knight, it was both.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026

City spent a Premier League record £458m during the recent transfer window, with incomings including midfield trio Enzo Fernandez, Elliot Anderson and Ayyoub Bouaddi.

From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026

“He’s the one who came into the cafeteria to invite me to transfer to Sunny Brook,” said Grace.

From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein

Even if you have a model as old as the iPhone 11, there’s plenty of practical improvements for you in iOS 27, not to mention performance boosters, such as up to 80% faster AirDrop transfers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

The U.S. military has provided some protection to tankers moving through the strait hugging Oman’s coast, and ship-to-ship transfers have been a growing way to get crude flowing out of the Middle East again.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026

Both Sidi Kerir loadings and ship-to-ship transfers likely will increase under the new Red Sea threat, particularly for Asian customers, said Dylan Mortimer, marine hull U.K. war leader at insurance broker Marsh.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026

There’s a new athletic director, a new coach and new policies on transfers, with Kasek approving all transfer paperwork.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026

Shanti's math skills come in handy for that, and she transfers my sketch onto graph paper to make it exact.

From "You Bring the Distant Near" by Mitali Perkins

To clear room on the 40-man roster, they transferred left-hander Eric Lauer from the 15-day IL to the 60-day.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026

That approach produces heat and can limit how quickly information can be transferred.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026

The decree passed in July allows for a student to be transferred to another school in a case involving significant risk to staff, and where education authorities have intervened.

From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026

It is widely thought to have been made in England almost 1,000 years ago before being transferred to Bayeux in France.

From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026

He was in his early forties when the company transferred our family to North Carolina.

From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris

The website, created by Tax Foundation senior fellow Jared Walczak, lets users look up the estimated tax burden for NFL players, plus it shows how transferring to a different team would change the numbers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

“In kind” is jargon for moving the actual shares into a taxable brokerage account rather than selling them inside the plan and transferring out the cash.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

He played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League and one at Clarkson University last season before transferring to Arizona State.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026

The transfer was carried out partially by buying and selling and partly by physically transferring gold, said the bank.

From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026

A clatter of hooves and wagon wheels drawing up to the side of the house snapped her attention back to my laundry, and she finished transferring it into her basket.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

Related Words

• assign
• bring
• carry
• cede
• change
• convert
• deliver
• dispatch
• ferry
• find
• give
• hand over
• move
• pass on
• provide
• relocate
• remove
• sell
• send
• shift