transcendence
/tɹæn(t)ˈsɛndəns/
transcendence · noun — the act of surpassing usual limits. It carries an Arena rating of 1749, earned across 28 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, transcendence ranks #412 of 17,187 for Most Malleable Words, #1,401 of 17,163 for Most Sublime Words, #1,673 of 17,163 for Most Beautiful Words, #2,916 of 17,130 for Most Ponderous Words.
transcendence is pronounced /tɹæn(t)ˈsɛndəns/.
Why “transcendence” is a great word
Transcendence is the state or quality of being beyond the ordinary range of perception, experience, or material limits. From the Latin *transcendere*, from *trans-* ("beyond, across") + *scandere* ("to climb"). Unlike "immanence," which denotes a quality inherent within the material world, or "mundanity," which denotes the ordinary and commonplace, transcendence is an upward motion, a scaling of the given. It is the vertiginous clarity on a high mountain pass, the dissolution of self in profound music, or the piercing insight that shatters a lifelong assumption—the human mind momentarily unmoored, having climbed past the boundary of itself into a horizon beyond all horizons.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
From transcend + -ence.
noun
- The act of surpassing usual limits.
- The state of being beyond the range of normal perception.
- The state of being free from the constraints of the material world, as in the case of a deity.
- Superior excellence; supereminence.e.g.“The Augustinian theology rests upon the transcendence of Deity as its controlling principle” — 1884, Alexander Viets Griswold Allen, The Continuity of Christian Thought:
- The property of being a transcendental number.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
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