What does transit mean?
Transit is the passage or movement of people, vehicles, or goods from one place to another. In everyday North American English, it commonly refers to public transportation systems such as buses, trains, and subways, often in the established phrase “public transit.” It can also describe an organized journey or the state of something being carried: a shipment is “in transit” until it reaches its destination. More formally, transit means the act of passing across or through a place or medium. In astronomy, a transit is an event in which one celestial body crosses the face of another. Transit may also function as a verb, especially in formal or technical descriptions of crossing a region or celestial body. The word is useful because it joins ordinary ideas of travel with the more specialized idea of a passage across something. Its Latin ancestry also makes transparent its central spatial idea: movement “across.”
Passage or transportation from one place to another, especially travel on a public transportation system; also an astronomical crossing.
"Public transit is more frequent than ever in the city center."
The transportation sense is often uncountable, while countable uses refer to individual passages or astronomical events.
To pass or travel across, especially across a region or in front of another celestial body.
"The satellite transited the Sun's disk from 10:00 to 11:30."
This verb is relatively uncommon in everyday speech and is especially used in formal, geographical, and astronomical contexts.
Used for countable instances of passage, especially astronomical events; the general transportation sense is normally uncountable.
"Astronomers recorded the transits of Mercury from several locations."
Transit comes straight down the track: Latin trans- means “across” and ire means “to go.”
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does transit come from?
Transit comes from Latin transitum, a noun formation based on transire, “to pass across.” The Latin verb combines trans- (“across”) with ire (“to go”), a pattern also underlying cognates such as transition, transient, and transitory. English developed transit into both a noun for passage or transportation and a verb meaning to pass across, with specialized astronomical senses.
Related word forms
How transit is actually used
The transportation sense is especially common in North American English; British English more often uses public transport. The astronomy sense is technical, while the verb is less common than the noun in general usage.
Easily confused with transit
Transit concerns passage or transportation, whereas transition concerns a change from one state, stage, or period to another.