nontransitively means in a nontransitive manner. It carries an Arena rating of 1342, earned across 8 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, nontransitively ranks #8,020 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #15,309 of 17,163 for Funniest Words.
Why “nontransitively” is a great word
Nontransitively means in a manner that is not transitive. The term derives from nontransitive, itself from non- ("not") + transitive ("having the property of transitivity"), combined with the adverb-forming suffix -ly (from Old English -līce, "in the manner of"). Unlike "transitively," which describes an action passing directly to a receiver, or "intransitively," which names a verb's inherent inability to take an object, "nontransitively" denotes a verb's grammatical posture of being momentarily unmoored from a direct object. It is the soft sigh after a sentence trails off, the footfall halting mid-step, the hand opening and releasing nothing into the air—the quiet grammar of incompleteness, where meaning lingers in absence.
Etymology
From nontransitive + -ly.
adv
- In a nontransitive manner.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.