transit

American  

[tran-zit, -sit] / ˈtræn zɪt, -sɪt /

noun

• transits
  plural

1. the act or fact of passing across or through; passage from one place to another.

   The area continues to be affected by the transit of illegal drugs bound for major cities.

2. conveyance or transportation of people or goods from one place to another, especially local public transportation.

   Improving city transit is a high priority for the new mayor.

3. a transition or change.

   The transit of autumn to winter saw woodpecker season in full swing and Canada geese on the move.

4. Astronomy.

   1. the passage of a heavenly body across the meridian of a given location or through the field of a telescope.

      The experiments lasted long enough for us to detect the transit of black holes with a mass of up to 10 times that of our sun.

   2. the passage of Mercury or Venus across the disk of the sun, or of a satellite or its shadow across the face of its primary.

      In June 2012, a NASA webcast enabled the public to view the transit of Venus across the solar disk.

   3. meridian circle.

5. Astrology. the passage of a planet through one of the twelve houses or divisions of the celestial sphere or across the position held by another planet in a person’s birth chart.

   The transit of Mars is happening in the third house for you, so expect a shift in things concerning home and family.

6. Also called transit theodolite, transit instrument.  Surveying. a type of theodolite having a telescope that can be flipped vertically to reverse the direction of view: used for measuring horizontal and often vertical angles, sometimes with the ability to take successive measurements of the same angle and average them for greater accuracy.

7. U.S. Aerospace. Transit, one of a series of satellites for providing positional data to ships and aircraft.

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verb (used with object)

• transits,
  present (3rd person singular)
• transited,
  past participle,  past
• transiting
  present participle

1. to pass across or through.

   Many millions of oil barrels transit the Suez Canal every day.

   It’s fairly easy to intercept emails as they transit the internet.

2. Surveying, Astronomy. to flip (a telescope) vertically in order to reverse the direction of view.

3. Astronomy. to cross (a meridian, celestial body, etc.).

   Mercury transits the sun about 13 or 14 times each century.

verb (used without object)

• transits,
  present (3rd person singular)
• transited,
  past participle,  past
• transiting
  present participle

1. to pass over, through, into, or out of something.

   Are you planning on transiting through the United States?

   Attackers can hijack your data as it transits to and from your system.

2. Astronomy. to make a passage across a meridian, celestial body, etc..

   The probe was looking for planets transiting across the face of stars.

idioms

1. in transit. see in transit.

transit British  

/ ˈtrænsɪt, ˈtrænz- /

noun

1. 1. the passage or conveyance of goods or people

   2. ( as modifier )

      a transit visa

2. a change or transition

3. a route

4. astronomy

   1. the passage of a celestial body or satellite across the face of a relatively larger body as seen from the earth

   2. the apparent passage of a celestial body across the meridian, caused by the earth's diurnal rotation

5. astrology the passage of a planet across some special point on the zodiac

6. while being conveyed; during passage

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verb

1. to make a transit through or over (something)

2. astronomy to make a transit across (a celestial body or the meridian)

3. to cause (the telescope of a surveying instrument) to turn over or (of such a telescope) to be turned over in a vertical plane so that it points in the opposite direction

transit Scientific  

/ trăn′sĭt /

1. The passage of a smaller celestial body or its shadow across the disk of a larger celestial body. As observed from Earth, Mercury and Venus are the only planets of the solar system that make transits of the Sun, because they are the only planets with orbits that lie between Earth and the Sun. Mercury makes an average of 13 transits of the Sun each century. Transits of Venus across the Sun are much rarer, with only 7 of them having occurred between 1639 and 2004. In contrast, transits of Jupiter's moons across its disk are common occurrences.

2. Compare occultation

3. The passage of a celestial body across the celestial meridian (the great circle on the celestial sphere passing through the celestial poles and an observer's zenith). For any observer, the object is at its highest in the sky at its transit of the observer's meridian.

4. See more at celestial meridian

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• transitable
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• transits
  plural

Participles

• transiting
  present
• transited
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• transit
  simple
• transits
  simple
• have transited
  perfect
• has transited
  perfect
• am transiting
  progressive
• are transiting
  progressive
• is transiting
  progressive
• have been transiting
  perfect progressive
• has been transiting
  perfect progressive

Past

• transited
  simple
• had transited
  perfect
• was transiting
  progressive
• were transiting
  progressive
• had been transiting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will transit
  simple
• will have transited
  perfect
• will be transiting
  progressive
• will have been transiting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of transit

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English (noun and verb), from Latin trānsitus “crossing, passage,” noun use of past participle of trānsīre “to go across, pass over,” from trāns- trans- + īre “to go”

Explanation

Transit means “journey,” and saying you’re "in transit" means you’re on your way somewhere. Before we had cell phones, one of the upsides of being in transit was that no one could get in touch with you. Transit may be familiar to you from the phrase mass transit. While it sometimes seems like “mass transit” is synonymous with “unreliable, crowded and inefficient,” the phrase just means "public transportation." The first instance of transit being used in this sense was in the 19th century, and people have been complaining ever since. Transit is related to the word transition, which refers to a change from one state or condition to another.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

transit transits transited transiting

The paper says people smugglers are using the UK as a "transit hub" for migrants hoping to reach other European countries.

From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026

The state-linked Fars News Agency reported on X that a tanker “has been detained,” noting that Iran requires shipowners transiting the waterway to pay transit fees.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

And there are just four public filling stations and 10 private ones at transit agencies to serve them, according to the California Energy Commission.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026

Tehran signalled last week that it had agreed with Oman a route for ships to transit the strait and were finalising arrangements to jointly manage the waterway.

From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026

Chastened, they sailed on, but en route word reached them that Sumatra had fallen to the French and so they observed the transit inconclusively from the Cape of Good Hope.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

The NSR is believed to be accessible only during the time of year when the ice is melted enough to allow transits without icebreakers.

From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026

But the route is only accessible during the time of the year when the ice is melted enough to allow transits without icebreakers.

From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026

Verified transits have been largely limited to cargoes from the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Qatar.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

The number of ships using this Omani route grew to a peak of 28 vessels on 25 June, Kpler's data shows, overtaking the number of transits via the Iranian route.

From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026

One morning when Ishmael was eight years old a pair of surveyors had showed up with their transits and alidades and knotted red flagging everywhere.

From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson

And despite the overall lull in the fighting, Iran fired drones at oil tankers from the United Arab Emirates, another U.S. ally, as they transited the Strait of Hormuz this month.

From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026

Last year, 23 container ships transited through, up from 15 in 2024, according to shipping analysis from business insurer Allianz Commercial.

From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026

Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said it held Iran "fully responsible" for an apparent targeted attack on a vessel called Al-Rekayyat as it transited near the Strait.

From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026

The IMO said Friday that a total of 15 vessels transited this morning, with 11 of them using the southern corridor backed by the IMO and with assistance from the U.S. and Oman.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026

We hear of him but once again until he, the Sun-God, or Savior, is thirty years old, or has transited thirty degrees of space.

From The Light of Egypt; or, the science of the soul and the stars — Volume 2 by Thomas H. Burgoyne

Ships are mostly transiting the southern route with their transponders turned off or moving through the northern route administered by Iran.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

The catering vehicle can then be seen transiting in the distance to the smaller C-32A aircraft.

From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026

It adds that the vessel "is no longer transiting to Iran".

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

Oman's foreign ministry on Saturday condemned "repeated attacks on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz", without naming Iran.

From Barron's ● Aug. 8, 2026

We observe only his transit; important to us, forgotten by him, transiting all day.

From A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers by Henry David Thoreau

Related Words

• passage
• shipment
• transport
• travel