transect
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of transect
1625–35; tran(s)- + Latin sectus, past participle of secāre to cut, sever ( see section)
Explanation
You could say that your favorite hiking trails transect a wooded hillside, since transect means "cut across." Use the verb transect when one thing divides or runs across another. Careful stitches might transect your grandmother's quilt, and a new highway might transect a historic city neighborhood. When you see the Latin prefix trans, you can be sure the word includes some sense of "across." In the case of transect, trans is combined with sect, from the Latin verb secare, "to cut."
Vocabulary lists containing transect
Unit 1: Ecological Systems
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A Cut Above: Sect, Sec
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sec, sect
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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.
About an hour west of Twin Lake the next day, Gilbert sat with Sam Myers, who runs a fourth-generation wheat farm that the B2H line would transect.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2025
These historical accounts of the landscape were "an extraordinary difference" from what Matthews observed during forest transect walks in Monte Pisano in 2014.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 26, 2024
Along the transect lies some of the world’s richest biodiversity.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 2, 2023
Several trails, including the ADA-accessible Centennial Fields Park Trail, transect the environment.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 7, 2023
The two birds from 12 miles north of Kalabakan were taken in a net stretched across a surveyor's transect.
From Birds from North Borneo University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History, Volume 17, No. 8, pp. 377-433, October 27, 1966 by Thompson, Max C.
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.
