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PlainSpell

transit

/ˈtɹæn.zɪt/noun, verb

transit is spelled T-R-A-N-S-I-T: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,121st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, transit means “The act of passing over, across, or through something” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of transit is transits.

How many letters and syllables are in transit?

Letters7: T-R-A-N-S-I-T
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing16 times per million words; the 5,121st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is transit?

Transit appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,121st most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce transit?

  • US /ˈtɹæn.zɪt/
  • US /ˈtɹæn.sɪt/
  • /ˈtɹæn.zət/

Transit has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-transit.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with transit?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as transit from its last stressed vowel (/ænzɪt/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of transit

  • transits plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • transiting participle, present
  • transited participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does transit mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The act of passing over, across, or through something.

  2. 2

    The conveyance of people or goods from one place to another, especially on a public transportation system; the vehicles used for such conveyance.

    the transit of goods through a country

  3. 3

    CanadaUSAny form of transport that can be used by a member of public (who usually pays a fare), as opposed to private ownership of e.g. cars; short form of public transit or mass transit

    I always take transit to work.

  4. 4

    The passage of a celestial body or other object across the observer's meridian, or across the disk of a larger celestial body.

  5. 5

    The passage of a celestial body in the horoscope, e.g. through a section or in relation to a specific important point in someone's birth chart.

  6. 6

    A surveying instrument rather like a theodolite that measures horizontal and vertical angles.

  7. 7

    An imaginary line between two objects whose positions are known. When the navigator sees one object directly in front of the other, the navigator knows that his position is on the transit.

  8. 8

    IrelandUKA Ford Transit van, see Transit.

    Beufort road, Birkenhead, about 17.15 June 19 2013, white transit overtakes and swerves left into junction almost taking my front wheel.

verb

  1. 1

    To pass over, across or through something.

  2. 2

    To convey people or goods from one place to another, especially by public transport vehicles.

  3. 3

    To use public transit.

    I always transit to work.

  4. 4

    To revolve an instrument about its horizontal axis so as to reverse its direction.

  5. 5

    To make a transit.

  6. 6

    To carry communications traffic to and from a customer or another network on a compensation basis as opposed to peerage in which the traffic to and from another network is carried on an equivalency basis or without charge.

noun

as Transit
  1. 1

    UKA Ford Transit van.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Transit in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchtransit (act of passing over, across, or through…), transiter (to pass over, across or through something)
GermanTransit, Durchgang (act of passing over, across, or through…), Durchreise (conveyance of people or goods from one place to…), Theodolit (surveying instrument)
Portuguesetrânsito, passagem (act of passing over, across, or through…), atravessar, transitar (to pass over, across or through something), transporte (conveyance of people or goods from one place to…)
Spanishtránsito (act of passing over, across, or through…), atravesar (to pass over, across or through something), transporte (conveyance of people or goods from one place to…), pasaje (astronomy: passage of a celestial body), girar (to revolve an instrument about its horizontal…), transitar (astronomy: to make a transit)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does transit come from?

From French, from Latin transire (“to go across, pass in, pass through”), from trans (“over”) + ire (“to go”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after transit