transmigrate
Americanverb (used without object)
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to move or pass from one place to another.
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to migrate from one country to another in order to settle there.
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(of the soul) to be reborn after death in another body.
verb (used with object)
verb
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to move from one place, state, or stage to another
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(of souls) to pass from one body into another at death
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of transmigrate
1400–50; late Middle English < Latin trānsmigrātus (past participle of trānsmigrāre to depart, migrate). See trans-, migrate
Explanation
You're most likely to come across the word transmigrate in a religious context. Your soul, some people believe, will transmigrate into a new body after death. Another way to say transmigrate is reincarnate, or be born again after death. Many religions believe that people transmigrate after they die, including Buddhism and Hinduism as well as some Native American beliefs. Rarely, the verb transmigrate is used to mean "move to a new country," although migrate is much more common. The root is the Latin word transmigrat, "move from one place to another," from the prefix trans, "across or beyond," and migratus, "to move."
Vocabulary lists containing transmigrate
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.
See Examples For:
The phenomena of spiritualism would then transmigrate from the region of materialized "mothers-in-law" and half-witted fortune-telling to the regions of the psycho-physiological sciences.
From From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan by H. P. (Helena Petrovna) Blavatsky
So we may justly say that this "character"—this moral and intellectual essence of a man—does veritably pass over from one fleshy tabernacle to another, ana does really transmigrate from generation to generation.
From Aphorisms and Reflections from the Works of T. H. Huxley by T. H. Huxley
When the saint of Djachi-Loumbo, when the Bandchan-Remboutchi dies, he will not transmigrate as heretofore, in Further Thibet.
From Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China During the years 1844-5-6 Volume 2 by Évariste Régis Huc
"Frogs," interposed Musaello, "must have been experimental philosophers, and experimental philosophers must all transmigrate into frogs."
From Literary Remains, Volume 1 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"I am sure all this is because you think you will transmigrate into a black spider!" she replied, her nostrils trembling with anger.
From From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan by H. P. (Helena Petrovna) Blavatsky
Whether the soul of Georges transmigrated is a matter for metaphysicians.
From BBC ● Jan. 31, 2015
It was understandable; though he had been a "vers libre bard" before his death, his soul had transmigrated into the body of an ambitious cockroach.
From Time Magazine Archive
SAWtooth productions like Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up are basically transmigrated American soul tempered down and slicked up into a formula that makes fashion as much as music.
From Time Magazine Archive
Ishmael transmigrated first into the she-ass of Balaam, and subsequently into the ass of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair.
From Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala by Various
It is for this reason that we are commanded to have our slaughtering-knife without defect, for who knows if there be not a transmigrated soul in the animal?
From Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala by Various
That outlives us.That starts off wholly physical and thenis slowly transmigrating as it must,a voice, a face, a bike left on the lawn,because love's also made of metaphorsof other things.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 24, 2011
Novels are getting restless, shrugging off their expensive papery husks and transmigrating digitally into other forms.
From Time Magazine Archive
This quality is perhaps best illustrated by Haldane's conversion to vegetarianism under the impact of the Hindu doctrine of transmigrating souls.
From Time Magazine Archive
There is in reality no transmigrating soul different from the Lord.
From The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya Sacred Books of the East, Volume 1 by George Thibaut
The person referred to in the passages concerning the person within the sun and the person within the eye is not a transmigrating being, but the highest Lord.
From The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya Sacred Books of the East, Volume 1 by George Thibaut
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.
