Transverses

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. To cross or extend across something in a direction that is perpendicular or at an angle
2. To move or pass through from one side to another, often involving a change of position or orientation
3. To go against or intersect various paths or lines, effectively connecting or dividing spaces

Etymology: "Transverses" is the plural form of "transverse," used as a noun or as the third-person singular of the verb. The verb's core idea, crossing over something, comes straight from the Latin adjective "transversus," meaning "turned across" or "lying crosswise." That Latin word was built from "trans," meaning "across," and "vertere," meaning "to turn," so the picture underneath is of something turned sideways across a path. English borrowed the adjective in the late Middle Ages, and it kept that crosswise sense for a long time before the verb came to mean moving across something. The word has a close relative in "transversal," which entered English along a different route and shares the same Latin source, so the two are doublets: forms of one word that reached English by separate paths.

Synonyms: crosses, intersects, traverses, spans, cuts across

Antonyms: follows, aligns, parallels, runs along, stays