transmit
Americanverb (used with object)
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transmits,
present (3rd person singular)
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transmitted,
past participle, past
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transmitting
present participle
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to send or forward, as to a recipient or destination; dispatch; convey.
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to communicate, as information or news.
- Synonyms:
- bear
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to pass or spread (disease, infection, etc.) to another.
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to pass on (a genetic characteristic) from parent to offspring.
The mother transmitted her red hair to her daughter.
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Physics.
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to cause (light, heat, sound, etc.) to pass through a medium.
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to convey or pass along (an impulse, force, motion, etc.).
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to permit (light, heat, etc.) to pass through.
Glass transmits light.
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Radio and Television. to emit (electromagnetic waves).
verb (used without object)
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transmits,
present (3rd person singular)
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transmitted,
past participle, past
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transmitting
present participle
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to send a signal by wire, radio, or television waves.
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to pass on a right or obligation to heirs or descendants.
verb
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(tr) to pass or cause to go from one place or person to another; transfer
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(tr) to pass on or impart (a disease, infection, etc)
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(tr) to hand down to posterity
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(tr; usually passive) to pass (an inheritable characteristic) from parent to offspring
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to allow the passage of (particles, energy, etc)
radio waves are transmitted through the atmosphere
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to send out (signals) by means of radio waves or along a transmission line
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to broadcast (a radio or television programme)
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(tr) to transfer (a force, motion, power, etc) from one part of a mechanical system to another
Synonym Usage
See carry.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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transmittalnoun
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pretransmitverb (used with object)
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retransmitverb (used with object)
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nontransmittibleadjective
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transmittableadjective
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transmittibleadjective
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untransmittedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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transmitsimple
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transmitssimple
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have transmittedperfect
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has transmittedperfect
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am transmittingprogressive
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are transmittingprogressive
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is transmittingprogressive
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have been transmittingperfect progressive
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has been transmittingperfect progressive
Past
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transmittedsimple
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had transmittedperfect
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was transmittingprogressive
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were transmittingprogressive
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had been transmittingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of transmit
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English transmitten, from Latin trānsmittere “to send across,” from trāns- trans- + mittere “to send”
Explanation
If you’re an international spy, you might transmit secret messages using a special code written in invisible ink. If you aren’t a spy, you could probably just use email. Whatever your circumstances, when you transmit information, you send. You can transmit things from person to person or from one thing to another. The airwaves can be used to transmit radio or TV signals, for example, and computers can transmit messages over a network. This verb often describes messages or data being sent, but you can also transmit ideas, beliefs, or attitude. In addition, transmit can describe the spread of disease, like mosquitoes that can transmit disease when they bite.
Vocabulary lists containing transmit
Tier 2 Words for the SBAC ELA Items
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Send a Message: Mit and Miss
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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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.
See Examples For:
There have been calls for alternative methods to vaccination for controlling the infection among cattle, such as badger culling, as they can carry the disease and transmit it to cattle.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
Axons are essential structures that allow brain cells to transmit signals.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
Some ships in the region may transmit false locations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
JPL also manages the Deep Space Network — the global array of massive antennas that will transmit commands to the copter and receive data from Titan.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
The hidden messages had begun to transmit directly into their minds—no more need for television, radios, or anything else.
From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart
What he transmits as a player is so direct, so incisive, constantly.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Daniel Senna, a 31-year-old patient at the Maugeri Hospital, transmits his pain level on a screen attached to the robot's chest.
From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026
The system places a nonlinear waveguide between two optical filters, each of which transmits a different portion of the light spectrum.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 4, 2026
The flea-sized psyllid bites the leaves and transmits the disease, which slowly chokes out the tree’s vascular system from the inside, taking years to finally show itself.
From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2026
He tells me to be careful, and that he will be monitoring anything that transmits through my microphone.
From "Legend" by Marie Lu
Ebola, which is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and causes haemorrhagic fever, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa in the last 50 years.
From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026
Our critic said that “even if the characters do not really interact, there is a notable sense of common feeling and purpose transmitted in moments of casual rapport between the actors.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
The information is encrypted and transmitted to a secure database that can only be accessed by San Diego police personnel, according to the department.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
"Our research shows that this assumption may not always hold true. Other treponemal diseases may also have been transmitted from mother to child."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 12, 2026
How could heat-killed bacterial debris—no more than a lukewarm soup of microbial chemicals—have transmitted a genetic trait to a live bacterium by mere contact?
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
And because Aedes aegypti feeds almost exclusively on humans, the insects are great at transmitting disease from one person to the next.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026
Her mobile phone was transmitting a signal and sending some messages a few days after her death.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
It may also lead to better ways of transmitting signals between devices and encoding more information within them.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026
"Starship is intact, floating in the ocean and transmitting telemetry!" company head Elon Musk said on X.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
Hit nine, transmitting at 1600, this is KX46, do you receive1 He does not understand all of it.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
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.
