Transverse

How to spell transverse

10 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce transverse

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does transverse mean?

1. adjectiveSituated or extending across something; lying crosswise rather than lengthwise.

Transverse in a sentence

• The transverse beam carries the weight of the upper floor.

• The scan produced a transverse slice through the patient's chest.

Where does transverse come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin transversus, meaning 'turned across' or 'lying crosswise', which is the past participle of transvertere, built from trans 'across' and vertere 'to turn'. The literal sense, then, is something that has been turned so that it crosses another line or axis. English took it up in the late Middle Ages, originally in geometry and anatomy where a line, plane, or muscle runs sideways across a body or figure. The same vertere 'to turn' root powers a large family of English words, including 'convert', 'reverse', 'version', and 'divert', so the 'vers' spelling is consistent across all of them. Recognising that 'trans' (across) joins a turned 'verse' makes the single, undoubled spelling easy to keep straight.

How the word is built

• trans- (across)
• vers (from Latin vertere: to turn)
• -e