transcendental
Meanings
- Synonym of transcendent (“surpassing usual limits; excelling; extraordinary”).
- In the philosophy of Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.): synonym of transcendent (“transcending or extending beyond a single category”); also, synonym of metaphysical (“of or relating to the basic structure of reality”).
- In the philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) or similar philosophies: concerned with the a priori or intuitive basis of knowledge, independent of experience.
- In the philosophy associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882): of or relating to transcendentalism (“a philosophy which stresses intuition and spirituality”).
- Beyond one's ordinary experience; extraordinary.
- Existing in the imagination; abstract, conceptual.
- Mystical, superhuman, supernatural.
- Of an element of an extension field: not algebraic, that is, not the root of any polynomial that has positive degree and rational coefficients; also, of an extension field: that contains elements which are not algebraic.
- Of a function or number: not algebraic.
- A thing which is transcendental (all adjective senses).
- Any one of the transcendental properties of being, especially beauty, goodness, and truth—which are respectively the ideals of art, religion, and science, and thus the principal subjects of the study of aesthetics, ethics, and logic.
- An element of an extension field, an extension field, a function, or a number which is not algebraic.
- Synonym of transcendentalist (“one who believes in transcendentalism; a philosopher who asserts that true knowledge is obtained by faculties of the mind that transcend sensory experience”).
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
The adjective is a learned borrowing from Medieval Latin transcendentālis + English -al (suffix meaning of or relating to forming adjectives; and forming nouns, especially of verbal action). Transcendentālis is derived from Latin trānscendentem + ‑ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship); and trānscendentem is the accusative singular form of trānscendēns (“exceeding, surpassing, transcending”), the present active participle of trānscendō (“to climb, cross, pass, or step over; to exceed, surpass, transcend”), from trāns- (prefix meaning ‘across; beyond; through’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terh₂- (“to cross over; to overcome; to pass through”)) + scandō (“to ascend, climb; etc.”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to ascend; to jump up”)). The noun is derived from the adjective.