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:
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 Huc, Évariste Régis
These are not in general trifling; for the Lama is frequently inconsiderate enough towards his followers to transmigrate in a part of the country at once distant and difficult of access.
From The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852 by Various
The Person is One in all the manifold phases of the Many, through which we transmigrate, and we find ourself perpetually, because we cannot lose ourself personally in the mazes of the many.
From Transcendentalism in New England A History by Frothingham, Octavius Brooks
Oh, if our souls could transmigrate I'd be a seamew above all birds that fly!
From Beyond the City by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir
Then we must cause our imaginary Frenchman to transmigrate into the body of a small, plump, weakly printer of the eighteenth century.
From Hours in a Library, Volume I. (of III.) by Stephen, Leslie, Sir
Whether the soul of Georges transmigrated is a matter for metaphysicians.
From BBC ● Jan. 31, 2015
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
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
For Plato says that there are souls which, in Recollections during transmigration. periods of many thousand years, have successively transmigrated through bodies of various kinds.
From History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2) Revised Edition by Draper, John William
They believe presently that Virgil's soul is transmigrated into them!
From The Praise of Folly by Wilson, John
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
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
Novels are getting restless, shrugging off their expensive papery husks and transmigrating digitally into other forms.
From Time Magazine Archive
Who knows how long thy transmigrating soul Might from Boeotian to Boeotian roll?
From The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 by Gilfillan, George
And for the following reason also the Self consisting of bliss is the highest Self only, not the other, i.e. the one which is other than the Lord, i.e. the transmigrating individual soul.
From The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya Sacred Books of the East, Volume 1 by Thibaut, George
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.
