transpire
Americanverb (used without object)
-
transpires,
present (3rd person singular)
-
transpired,
past participle, past
-
transpiring
present participle
-
to occur; happen; take place.
-
to emit or give off waste matter, watery vapor, etc., through the surface, as of the body or of leaves.
-
to escape, as moisture or odor, through or as if through pores.
-
to be revealed or become known.
verb (used with object)
-
transpires,
present (3rd person singular)
-
transpired,
past participle, past
-
transpiring
present participle
verb
-
(intr) to come to light; be known
-
informal (intr) to happen or occur
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physiol to give off or exhale (water or vapour) through the skin, a mucous membrane, etc
-
(of plants) to lose (water in the form of water vapour), esp through the stomata of the leaves
Usage
It is often maintained that transpire should not be used to mean happen or occur, as in the event transpired late in the evening , and that the word is properly used to mean become known, as in it transpired later that the thief had been caught . The word is, however, widely used in the former sense, esp in spoken English
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
transpiresimple
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transpiressimple
-
have transpiredperfect
-
has transpiredperfect
-
am transpiringprogressive
-
are transpiringprogressive
-
is transpiringprogressive
-
have been transpiringperfect progressive
-
has been transpiringperfect progressive
Past
-
transpiredsimple
-
had transpiredperfect
-
was transpiringprogressive
-
were transpiringprogressive
-
had been transpiringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of transpire
First recorded in 1590–1600; from Middle French transpirer, from Medieval Latin trānspīrāre, equivalent to Latin trāns- trans- + spīrāre “to breathe”
Explanation
Transpire is a fancy way of saying "happen." You might go to a fortune teller to find out what will transpire in the future. Originally used to express when information became known or came to light, many purists will tell you that's really the best way to use transpire. It can also mean releasing vapor into the air, like when a plant transpires water through its leaves on a hot day. Note: you'll usually encounter this word in its past tense: for example, "We had to watch the replay to figure out what had transpired."
Vocabulary lists containing transpire
The Great Gatsby
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"To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell
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I Am Malala
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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:
Warsh has vowed to cut down on providing insights into Fed policy positions, and on Friday again refrained from sharing his view of what may transpire at the October gathering.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
The epistemic mismatch between her idea of what would transpire and the frat brothers’ is truly tragic.
From Slate ● Oct. 9, 2026
"Any signing in that striker area, it'll either transpire in the next 24, 48 hours, or we'll just go as we are," Maloney explained.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
Carney added he was awaiting a response from Air Canada’s board about why this was allowed to transpire.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026
Science was moving from a world of macrophysics, where objects could be seen and held and measured, to one of microphysics, where events transpire with unimaginable swiftness on scales far below the limits of imagining.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
In an era when short TikTok and YouTube videos are being blamed for eroding attention spans and fueling a reading crisis, social media, it transpires, is creating new audiences for the classics.
From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026
What unexpectedly transpires in the finale makes “The Amateur” perhaps Mr. Bohjalian’s most satisfying work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
It transpires it is not well liked in the US.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
Freedom of the seas, it transpires, is challenging to enforce.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 21, 2026
We do not know what transpires within the Town, but there is much Word among the assembled Regiments that it is become a Prison & only those who obtains Passes from Gen. Gage may leave.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
"I want to say broadly over the month or so that's transpired since then, the world has broadly conformed to our expectations."
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
As if this knee-jerk response were anticipated, Sally reassures the audience that what they came to see will be different than what transpired before.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026
The event, it transpired, had not been viewed as paid professional work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Considering the tribulations “Coyote vs. Acme” has overcome to finally reach theaters, it’s impossible not to see the parallels between what’s on screen and what transpired between the filmmakers and Warner Bros.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
I know not what further scheme they would have enacted upon my already distracted frame had events not transpired which changed considerably the issue of this incarceration.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
"What ended up transpiring was that I was quite good at the beauty industry job," she says and eventually she dropped out of university to pursue a career in it.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
“I think it was hard enough for the SEC and others to understand what was transpiring in the market then.”
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2025
He writes about what’s transpiring in the U.S.’s northern neighbor with an eye toward the broader global context.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2025
But finer than all that was the chilling fact that Ibsen’s text, as adapted by Amy Herzog, sounded as if it had been written yesterday — and could still be transpiring in real life tomorrow.
From New York Times ● Dec. 4, 2023
The horror transpiring in front of me, suspended for one disbelieving instant.
From "The Rock and the River" by Kekla Magoon
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
