Word.ws English Dictionary

intransitive

/ɪnˈtɹænsətɪv/

intransitive adjective: not transitive: not having, or not taking, a direct object.

Adjective

intransitive (not comparable)

  1. Not transitive: not having, or not taking, a direct object.
    • The word "drink" is a transitive verb in "they drink wine", but an intransitive one in "they drink often."
  2. (rare) Not transitive or passing further; kept; detained.
    • And then it is for the image's sake and so far is intransitive; but whatever is paid more to the image is transitive and passes further.1664-1667, Jeremy Taylor, Dissuasive from Popery
  3. Of a set of dice: containing three dice A, B, and C, with the property that A rolls higher than B more than half the time, and B rolls higher than C more than half the time, but lacking the property that A rolls higher than C more than half the time. See intransitive dice and intransitive game.

Noun

intransitive (plural intransitives)

  1. An intransitive verb.
    • This means that subcategorization properties do not allow us to distinguish between transitives and intransitives (both types of verbs are allowed, but not obliged, to take a direct object).2011, Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin, The Syntax of Romanian: Comparative Studies in Romance, page 136

intransitive meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

intransitive in Hindi

intransitive
अकर्मक akarmak

intransitive in Tamil

செயப்படுபொருள்குன்றிய, தன்வினை

intransitive in Marathi

intransitive
अकर्मक akarmak

intransitive in Urdu

intransitive
لازم lāzim
More languagesFewer languages
intransitive in Bengali
অকর্মক ক্রিয়া okormok kriẏa
intransitive in Telugu
అకర్మకము akarmakamu
intransitive in Malayalam
അകർമ്മക്രിയ akaṟmmakriya, അകർമ്മകം akaṟmmakaṁ
intransitive in Kannada
ಒರ‍್ಪಾಲ್ಗೊಳ್ಳುವ, ಅಕರ್ಮಕ
intransitive in Sanskrit
अकर्मक akarmaka
intransitive in Tagalog
katawanin
intransitive in Arabic
لَازِم lāzim
intransitive in Vietnamese
nội

Examples of intransitive in a sentence

  • (intransitive) I think the car is overheating – we'd better pull off .
  • There are 3 cardinal degrees of transitivity of any one verb: intransitive, monotransitive and ditransitive.
  • The subjects of the intransitive verbs "fall" and "burn" are experiencers.

All 20 example sentences with intransitive

Synonyms of intransitive

Antonyms

Forms of intransitive

pluralintransitives

Origin of intransitive

From in- + transitive.

Words formed from intransitive

Phrases with intransitive

Questions about intransitive

What does intransitive mean?
Intransitive means not transitive: not having, or not taking, a direct object.
What is intransitive in Hindi?
Intransitive in Hindi is अकर्मक (akarmak). See Intransitive meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is intransitive?
Intransitive can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce intransitive?
Intransitive is pronounced /ɪnˈtɹænsətɪv/.

Words near intransitive in the dictionary

  1. intransigentist
  2. intransigentists
  3. intransigently
  4. intransigents
  5. intransitable
  6. intransitive
  7. intransitive preposition
  8. intransitive prepositions
  9. intransitive verb
  10. intransitive verbs
  11. intransitively

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: intransitive (page history and authors); अकर्मक (Hindi) (page history and authors); intransitive (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); अकर्मक (Marathi) (page history and authors); لازم (Urdu) (page history and authors); అకర్మకము (Telugu) (page history and authors); intransitive (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “intransitive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/intransitive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.