transact

American  

[tran-sakt, -zakt] / trænˈsækt, -ˈzækt /

verb (used with object)

• transacts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• transacted,
  past participle,  past
• transacting
  present participle

1. to carry on or conduct (business, negotiations, activities, etc.) to a conclusion or settlement.

   Synonyms:

   negotiate, manage, settle, conclude, enact

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verb (used without object)

• transacts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• transacted,
  past participle,  past
• transacting
  present participle

1. to carry on or conduct business, negotiations, etc..

   He was ordered to transact only with the highest authorities.

transact British  

/ trænˈzækt /

verb

1. to do, conduct, or negotiate (business, a deal, etc)

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Synonym Usage

See perform.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• transactor
  noun
• pretransact
  verb (used with object)
• untransacted
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• transacting
  present
• transacted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• transact
  simple
• transacts
  simple
• have transacted
  perfect
• has transacted
  perfect
• am transacting
  progressive
• are transacting
  progressive
• is transacting
  progressive
• have been transacting
  perfect progressive
• has been transacting
  perfect progressive

Past

• transacted
  simple
• had transacted
  perfect
• was transacting
  progressive
• were transacting
  progressive
• had been transacting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will transact
  simple
• will have transacted
  perfect
• will be transacting
  progressive
• will have been transacting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of transact

First recorded in 1575–85; from Latin trānsāctus (past participle of trānsigere “to carry out, accomplish”), equivalent to trāns- “across, beyond, through” + ag(ere) “to drive, lead” + -tus past participle suffix; see trans-

Explanation

The verb transact is almost always used with the word "business." To transact business is to conduct it, as when a shopkeeper sells groceries to a customer. All kinds of business owners and workers transact business, just by following their usual routines of selling, buying, investing, trading, or anything else they do to carry out their work. Shoppers also participate in transacting business — a purchase can also be called a transaction. The Latin root word, transactus, means "to drive through or accomplish."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

transact transacts transacted transacting

Google Pay and PhonePe can fight fiercely for customers while still allowing their users to transact across the same network.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

Cryptocurrency has offered a path for citizens and businesses to transact with the rest of the world.

From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026

Countermeasures include visa denials and expulsion for foreign nationals, seizure of their assets in China and restrictions on their ability to transact with Chinese counterparts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026

Morehead’s thesis is that as AI becomes more widely used, the rise of autonomous agents may eventually need digitally native ways to transact.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 28, 2026

Other Koreans depended on him to find good deals and transact them.

From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on the agency, threatening penalties for any shipper that transacts with it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026

That could jeopardize a trading relationship worth some $300 billion a year, just slightly less than Japan transacts with the U.S.

From Barron's ● Feb. 10, 2026

“We are hearing that we are not just clients or countries that one transacts with, we want to be partners, and that’s certainly the spirit with which we are engaging them,” he said.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 10, 2022

But it still transacts based on those stories, based on what it could become, based on what it intends to do, based on what it, in theory, might do in the future.

From Salon ● Feb. 17, 2022

Aristide transacts his business and joins me in the train at Montpellier.

From The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol by Alec Ball

Out of the properties transacted, 49 were previously in the private rental sector, while 30 were purchased for rental use.

From BBC ● May 7, 2026

The spokeswoman said the investigation didn’t establish that any Binance user transacted directly with a sanctioned entity, instead transmitting funds over several steps.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026

A huge portion of such fraud is transacted in cryptocurrency.

From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2025

Lenders on Zelle are also now required to implement a tool that flags transfers with risky attributes, such as a payment to an account that has never transacted on the Zelle network, said Chance.

From Reuters ● Nov. 13, 2023

As we entered this city, our minds were filled with the remembrance of the events that had been transacted there more than a century and a half before.

From "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley

There were 59 million monthly transacting active users for Cash App in the month of June.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026

She is accused of breaching US sanctions against Iran, which prohibit US persons from transacting or dealing in Iranian goods or services without authorisation.

From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2026

Authorities said Binance critically undermined the U.S. blockade on Iran’s economy, allowing U.S. users to make transactions worth over $898 million with Iranian users despite sanctions that bar financial institutions from transacting there.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026

If there are enough buyers and sellers transacting, that market is efficient.

From Salon ● Jan. 7, 2025

General Harding was not slow in transacting the business that carried him to London.

From The Finger of Fate A Romance by Mayne Reid