transmit
Americanverb (used with object)
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transmits,
present (3rd person singular)
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transmitted,
past participle, past
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transmitting
present participle
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to send or forward, as to a recipient or destination; dispatch; convey.
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to communicate, as information or news.
- Synonyms:
- bear
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to pass or spread (disease, infection, etc.) to another.
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to pass on (a genetic characteristic) from parent to offspring.
The mother transmitted her red hair to her daughter.
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Physics.
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to cause (light, heat, sound, etc.) to pass through a medium.
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to convey or pass along (an impulse, force, motion, etc.).
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to permit (light, heat, etc.) to pass through.
Glass transmits light.
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Radio and Television. to emit (electromagnetic waves).
verb (used without object)
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transmits,
present (3rd person singular)
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transmitted,
past participle, past
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transmitting
present participle
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to send a signal by wire, radio, or television waves.
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to pass on a right or obligation to heirs or descendants.
verb
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(tr) to pass or cause to go from one place or person to another; transfer
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(tr) to pass on or impart (a disease, infection, etc)
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(tr) to hand down to posterity
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(tr; usually passive) to pass (an inheritable characteristic) from parent to offspring
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to allow the passage of (particles, energy, etc)
radio waves are transmitted through the atmosphere
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to send out (signals) by means of radio waves or along a transmission line
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to broadcast (a radio or television programme)
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(tr) to transfer (a force, motion, power, etc) from one part of a mechanical system to another
Synonym Usage
See carry.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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transmittalnoun
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pretransmitverb (used with object)
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retransmitverb (used with object)
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nontransmittibleadjective
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transmittableadjective
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transmittibleadjective
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untransmittedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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transmitsimple
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transmitssimple
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have transmittedperfect
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has transmittedperfect
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am transmittingprogressive
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are transmittingprogressive
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is transmittingprogressive
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have been transmittingperfect progressive
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has been transmittingperfect progressive
Past
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transmittedsimple
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had transmittedperfect
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was transmittingprogressive
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were transmittingprogressive
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had been transmittingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of transmit
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English transmitten, from Latin trānsmittere “to send across,” from trāns- trans- + mittere “to send”
Explanation
If you’re an international spy, you might transmit secret messages using a special code written in invisible ink. If you aren’t a spy, you could probably just use email. Whatever your circumstances, when you transmit information, you send. You can transmit things from person to person or from one thing to another. The airwaves can be used to transmit radio or TV signals, for example, and computers can transmit messages over a network. This verb often describes messages or data being sent, but you can also transmit ideas, beliefs, or attitude. In addition, transmit can describe the spread of disease, like mosquitoes that can transmit disease when they bite.
Vocabulary lists containing transmit
Tier 2 Words for the SBAC ELA Items
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Send a Message: Mit and Miss
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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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:
"Pneumonic plague can transmit from person to person and that is why there is the concern around this," he said.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
But the western blacklegged tick, known as the deer tick in most of the country, is common in the state’s chaparral, grasslands and woods, and can transmit Lyme disease, babesiosis and other pathogens.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
His competitor, George Westinghouse, was developing AC, which could transmit electricity economically over much greater distances than Edison’s low-voltage DC.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Linkages between financial institutions, derivatives, securitization and market structures create multiple paths that will rapidly transmit shocks, making it difficult to quarantine problems.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026
Now you have to take all of the above information and somehow transmit it to the children before you sing.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
Michael O’Donnell praises “Alexander’s Feast” as a tale of Cold War espionage and intellectual combat that transmits “the chill in Europe as the Iron Curtain descended.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
The station transmits internet traffic through Poland to countries including Ukraine, and uses SpaceX systems that provide connectivity via Starlink terminals.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
The shipping route, which handles five percent of global maritime trade, will cut the number of daily transmits from 36 to 34 from September 3, and to 32 later in the month.
From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026
The system places a nonlinear waveguide between two optical filters, each of which transmits a different portion of the light spectrum.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 4, 2026
He tells me to be careful, and that he will be monitoring anything that transmits through my microphone.
From "Legend" by Marie Lu
The other forms of plague are bubonic, which infects the lymph nodes, and septicemic, which is transmitted in the bloodstream and is also very deadly.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Plague is a bacterial disease that can occur in several forms, including pneumonic plague, which is the most contagious type and can be transmitted by respiratory means.
From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026
It connected the molecular assembly to the cell's internal skeleton, allowing force to be transmitted across the surface of the material being engulfed.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 5, 2026
An infected animal can pass rabies to another animal or to a person through its bite, but that’s not the only way it can be transmitted.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Through one jack was transmitted a Spanish-language radio station; through the other, a rhythm-and-blues station, except during sporting events, when the games were transmitted instead.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
In March 2000, as the bubble burst, shares of companies in the business of transmitting data, or networking, plummeted too.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 19, 2026
The lawsuit alleges people wearing the smart glasses were unwittingly transmitting data to Meta whenever they used Meta AI by saying “Hey Meta,” or sometimes accidentally when adjusting the glasses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
Generating many frequencies simultaneously could be far more useful because each could potentially serve as a separate channel for transmitting information at the same time.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 24, 2026
Then, from just before 7:30 a.m. that morning to about 1:45 p.m. on Jan. 30, it stopped transmitting its location, a common tactic used by shadow-fleet tankers to obscure their activities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
When I did, he was transmitting only five-way orders.
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
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.
