transition

American  

[tran-zish-uhn, -sish-] / trænˈzɪʃ ən, -ˈsɪʃ- /

noun

• transitions
  plural

1. 

   movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc., to another; change.

   The transition from adolescence to adulthood can be difficult.

   Synonyms:

   conversion, passing, changeover

2. Music.

   1. a passing from one key to another; modulation.

   2. a brief modulation; a modulation used in passing.

   3. a sudden, unprepared modulation.

3. a passage from one scene to another by sound effects, music, etc., as in a television program, theatrical production, or the like.

4. Also called gender transition. the process by which a transgender person comes to openly express their gender identity, including changes to their way of dressing, acting, or speaking, to their pronouns, name, or legal gender marker, or to their physical characteristics via hormone therapy and surgery.

   When I began my transition, there was very little information online about testosterone.

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verb (used without object)

1. to make a transition.

   He had difficulty transitioning from enlisted man to officer.

2. (of a transgender person) to move toward openly expressing one's gender identity, often by making changes to one's way of dressing, acting, or speaking, to one's pronouns, name, or legal gender marker, or to one's physical characteristics via hormone therapy and surgery.

   My friend is transitioning socially, but she doesn't want hormone therapy or surgery.

transition British  

/ trænˈzɪʃən /

noun

1. change or passage from one state or stage to another

2. the period of time during which something changes from one state or stage to another

3. music

   1. a movement from one key to another; modulation

   2. a linking passage between two divisions in a composition; bridge

4. Also called: transitional. a style of architecture that was used in western Europe in the late 11th and early 12th century, characterized by late Romanesque forms combined with early Gothic details

5. physics

   1. any change that results in a change of physical properties of a substance or system, such as a change of phase or molecular structure

   2. a change in the configuration of an atomic nucleus, involving either a change in energy level resulting from the emission of a gamma-ray photon or a transformation to another element or isotope

6. a sentence, passage, etc, that connects a topic to one that follows or that links sections of a written work

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• transitional
  adjective
• transitionary
  adjective
• transitionally
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• transitions
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of transition

First recorded in 1545–55; from Latin trānsitiōn-, stem of trānsitiō “passage, transit across,” from trānsit(us) “gone across” (past participle of trānsīre “to go across, pass over”; cf. transit ) + -iō -ion

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Explanation

A transition is a change from one thing to the next, either in action or state of being—as in a job transition or as in the much more dramatic example of a caterpillar making a transition into a butterfly. Transition is awfully reassuring in its tidy reliance on regular forms. Trans means "cross," so when you hear it at the beginning of a word you know that it indicates crossing, as in transatlantic or translate. An odd thing happening with transition lately is that it is transitioning from its familiar form as a noun to a newer life as a verb, as in “We’re going to transition Gloria to that new job.”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

transition transitions

I was touring “Deeper Well” and wrapping up that cycle, and was going through a transition in my romantic life, and it was hard.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026

Instead, he said memory costs have so far been more of a driver for enterprise-related revenue than the transition to AI.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2026

The Escondida mine in northern Chile yearly digs up around five percent of the world's copper, which is essential for the energy transition, artificial intelligence and defense.

From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026

These findings show that the transition from a flexible, unspecialized cell to one with a particular biological function does not happen at the same time throughout the embryo.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026

She says that B-flat major is my sweet spot and gives me the most room to transition from my chest to my head voice when I climb up to the high F at the end.

From "Like Vanessa" by Tami Charles

Traditional atomic clocks solve this problem by using the energy transitions of electrons in atoms as a stable reference.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026

Appel is now in his mid-30s and works as a financial planner based in Wisconsin who specializes in helping families with transitions like the one his own family faced.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026

The list of companies that have ushered in new CEOs in planned transitions this year includes Walmart, Disney, Coca-Cola, and Apple.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

I’m into transitions and things like that and he called them “Gozintas.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

A young math teacher at Truman helped select music—a melancholy, indie-rock sound track to play during transitions between scenes.

From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove

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Related Words

• changeover
• conversion
• development
• evolution
• growth
• passage
• progress
• progression
• shift
• transformation
• upheaval

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