1. A place (often marked) where a street or railroad can be crossed; SYN. crosswalk.
2. A point where two lines (paths or arcs etc.) intersect.
3. A voyage across a body of water (usually across the Atlantic Ocean).
4. Traveling across.
ETYM French descente, from descendre; like vente, from vendre. Related to Descend.
1. A downward slope; SYN. declivity, fall, decline, downslope.
2. A movement downward.
3. The act of changing one's location in a downward direction.
4. The kinship relation between an individual and the individual's progenitors; SYN. line of descent, lineage, filiation.
ETYM French passage. Related to Pass.
1. A path or channel through or along which someone or something may pass.
2. A path or channel or duct through or along which something may pass; SYN. passageway.
3. The act of passing something to another person; SYN. handing over.
4. A short section of a text or a musical composition; SYN. musical passage.
5. The act of passing from one stage to the next; SYN. transition.
6. A process of passing from one place or stage to another; SYN. passing.
7. A journey usually by ship; SYN. transit.
In music, a nontechnical term referring to a length of music of unfixed duration, but usually a short section, which is characterized by a single melodic or textural feature.
ETYM Latin transitus, from transire to go over: cf. French transit. Related to Transient.
In astronomy, the passage of a smaller object across the visible disc of a larger one. Transits of the inferior planets occur when they pass directly between the Earth and the Sun, and are seen as tiny dark spots against the Sun's disc.
Other forms of transit include the passage of a satellite or its shadow across the disc of Jupiter and the passage of planetary surface features across the central meridian of that planet as seen from Earth. The passage of an object in the sky across the observer's meridian is also known as a transit.
1. The act of passing; passage through or over.
2. The act or process of causing to pass; transportation.
3. A line or route of passage or transportation.
4. An instrument resembling a theodolite, used by surveyors and engineers to measure angles.
ETYM Latin transitio: cf. French transition. Related to Transient.
1. A change from one place or state or subject or stage to another.
2. A musical passage moving from one key to another; SYN. modulation.
3. A passage that connects a topic to one that follows.
4. Act or state of passing from one condition or time to another.
5. In music, a passage connecting two sections of a piece. For example, in a sonata-form movement a transition often connects the first and second subjects (principal melodies). The retransition is the transition connecting the development and the recapitulation.
6. Transition is also an alternate name for modulation, especially if the change of keys is abrupt.