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

New concourses, expanded corridors and improved passenger facilities have reshaped the transit hub, which serves hundreds of thousands of commuters and travelers each day and remains the busiest rail station in the United States.

From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2026

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the death of the U.S. servicemembers “stiffens our resolve”, raising the specter of escalating American attacks and a further challenge to normalizing transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

The Guards said separately that they had "stopped" four ships attempting to transit the strategic passage.

From Barron's ● Jul. 18, 2026

From there they would be transported by road, via rough transit camps in the forest, through Thailand to the Malaysian border.

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

The idea was to signal, as publicly as possible, that the transit police were now serious about cracking down on fare-beaters.

From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell

The number of transits fell to eight on Thursday, the lowest level in three weeks, according to ship-tracking firm Kpler.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026

The transits include a number of ships that would previously have been at risk of being stopped:

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 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

Months of uninterrupted darkness made it possible to observe the planets' unusually long transits, each lasting more than 11 hours, without interruption.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 27, 2026

I watched two Phobos transits yesterday and sighted Deneb last night.

From "The Martian" by Andy Weir

Before the war, about 25% of the world’s seaborne oil trade transited through the strait.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026

Overall, more than 34 million barrels of Iranian crude oil have transited the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. lifted its blockade on June 18, according to Kpler.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

His remarks reflect the ship's owner's report that limited damage had been caused and that the vessel had since safely transited the strait.

From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026

Including container ships, at least 26 commercial vessels had already transited the strait by Monday morning, according to AXSMarine navigation data.

From Barron's ● Jun. 22, 2026

She has transited the Atlantic to attend our Congress, but can only be present at this evening's Inauguratory, as she must be in New York again before sundown to-morrow.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 62, Jan 27, 1872 by Various

"Between 2018 and 2023, apparently there was a resurface of major trafficking and transiting in Liberia. Over the last one-and-a-half years, we've been surveilling them and this is the result of that operation," said Coleman.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

A renewed US blockade on Iranian ports was imposed on Tuesday evening, which stops vessels from transiting to and from Iranian ports and coastal areas.

From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026

Monday launched its third consecutive night of strikes on Iran, citing repeated attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026

Two ships "illegally" transiting the strait "were targeted and stopped by warning shots fired by the navy of the Revolutionary Guards," said a correspondent on national television based near the strait.

From Barron's ● Jul. 13, 2026

Pain, and seeing two bright objects transiting the darkness at which he looked; seeing something then between.

From A Gift For Terra by Holden, Fox B.

Related Words

• passage
• shipment
• transport
• travel