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:
So we may justly say that this "character"—this moral and intellectual essence of a man—does veritably pass over from one fleshly tabernacle to another, and does really transmigrate from generation to generation.
From Evolution and Ethics by Huxley, Thomas Henry
"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 Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
It is Manas, the animal intelligence, and the animal soul or Jiva, both half material illusions, that sin and suffer and transmigrate from one body into the other till they purify themselves.
From From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan by Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
The Druids of old Gaul believed that the souls of men transmigrate into those bodies whose habits and characters they most resemble.
From Five Lectures on Reincarnation by Abhedananda, Swami
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
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
Great Omar, here to-night we drain a bowl Unto thy long-since transmigrated soul, Ours all unworthy in thy place to sit, Ours still to read in life's enchanted scroll.
From Robert Louis Stevenson, an Elegy; and Other Poems by Le Gallienne, Richard
They are supposed to be the transmigrated souls of deceased human beings.
From Myths and Legends of China by Werner, E. T. C. (Edward Theodore Chalmers)
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
Smriti also declares that the transmigrating soul when reaching the state of Release 'imitates,' i.e. attains supreme equality of attributes with the highest Brahman.
From The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja — Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48 by Thibaut, George
The general principle is that whatever being appears to itself appears as an 'I'; both parties in the present dispute establish the existence of the transmigrating Self on such appearance.
From The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja — Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48 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.
