different between transcend vs ascend

English

Etymology

From Middle English transcenden, from Old French transcender, from Latin transcendere (“to climb over, step over, surpass, transcend”), from trans (“over”) + scandere (“to climb”); see scan; compare ascend, descend.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?æn(t)?s?nd/

Verb

transcend (third-person singular simple present transcends, present participle transcending, simple past and past participle transcended)

1. (transitive) to pass beyond the limits of something.
   • 1623, Francis Bacon, A Discourse of a War with Spain

     such personal popes, emperors, or elective kings, as shall transcend their limits

2. (transitive) to surpass, as in intensity or power; to excel.
   • c. 1698, John Dryden, Epitaph on the Monument of a Fair Maiden Lady (

     How much her worth transcended all her kind.

3. (obsolete) To climb; to mount.
   • September 5 1632, James Howell, "To Sir Tho. Haw." in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ

     your Muse soars up to the upper, and transcending that too, takes her fight among the Celestial bodies

Synonyms

• (to pass beyond the limits of something): exceed, overgo, surpass; see also Thesaurus:transcend
• (to surpass something): better, dwarf, eclipse; see also Thesaurus:exceed
• (to climb): ascend

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• transcend in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• transcend in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

From Middle English ascenden, borrowed from Old French ascendre, from Latin ascend? (“to go up, climb up to”), from ad (“to”) + scand? (“to climb”); see scan. Unrelated to accede other than common ad prefix.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??s?nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd
• Hyphenation: as?cend

Verb

ascend (third-person singular simple present ascends, present participle ascending, simple past and past participle ascended)

1. (intransitive) To move upward, to fly, to soar.

   He ascended to heaven upon a cloud.

2. (intransitive) To slope in an upward direction.
3. (transitive) To go up.

   You ascend the stairs and take a right.

4. (transitive) To succeed.

   She ascended the throne when her mother abdicated.

5. (intransitive, figuratively) To rise; to become higher, more noble, etc.
6. To trace, search or go backwards temporally (e.g., through records, genealogies, routes, etc.).

   Our inquiries ascend to the remotest antiquity.

7. (transitive, music) To become higher in pitch.

Antonyms

• descend

Related terms

• ascent
• ascendant
• ascendance
• ascendancy/ascendency
• ascending
• ascender
• ascension
• transcend

Translations

See also

• climb

Further reading

• ascend in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ascend in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Dances, dances, decans, descan

French

Verb

ascend

1. third-person singular present indicative of ascendre