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

• IPA: /tɹæn(t)ˈsɛnd/

transcend (transcends, present participle transcending; simple past and past participle transcended)

1. (transitive) To pass beyond the limits of something.
   • a. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a VVarre vvith Spaine. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany VVorks of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. […], London: […] I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, […], published 1629, →OCLC ↗:

     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.

   lights in the heavens transcending the region of the clouds

   • 1655, James Howell, “To Sir Tho. Haw.”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume (please specify the page), London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], →OCLC ↗:

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

• (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

• French: transcender
• German: übersteigen
• Portuguese: transcender
• Russian: переступать предел
• Spanish: trascender

• Russian: превосходи́ть