transition

Definitions

1. 1.(Mus.) A direct or indirect passing from one key to another; a modulation.
2. 2.(Rhet.) A passing from one subject to another. [He] with transition sweet, new speech resumes. Milton.
3. 3.(Biol.) Change from one form to another. Note: This word is sometimes pronounced tran*sish"un; but according to Walker, Smart, and most other authorities, the customary and preferable pronunciation is tran*sizh"un, although this latter mode violates analogy. Other authorities say tran*zish"un. Transition rocks (Geol.), a term formerly applied to the lowest uncrystalline stratified rocks (graywacke) supposed to contain no fossils, and so called because thought to have been formed when the earth was passing from an uninhabitable to a habitable state.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Related questions

• What does "transition" mean?

Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is transition.

• What is a direct or indirect passing from one key to another; a modulation called?
• What is a passing from one subject to another. [He] with transition sweet, new speech resumes. Milton called?