Word.ws English Dictionary

transfer

/tɹɑːnsˈfɜː//tɹænsˈfɚ/

transfer verb: to move or pass from one place, person or thing to another. Also the ellipsis of transfer student.

Verb

transfer (third-person singular simple present transfers, present participle transferring, simple past and past participle transferred)

  1. (transitive) To move or pass from one place, person or thing to another.
    • to transfer the laws of one country to another; to transfer suspicion
    Synonyms:
    carry over, move, onpass
  2. (transitive) To convey the impression of (something) from one surface to another.
    • to transfer drawings or engravings to a lithographic stone
    Synonyms:
    copy, transpose
  3. To exit one mass transit vehicle and board another (typically one belonging to a different line or mode of transportation) to continue a journey.
    • transfer to the Blue Line
  4. (intransitive) To be or become transferred.
  5. (transitive) To arrange for something to belong to or be officially controlled by somebody else.
    • The title to land is transferred by deed.
  6. (transitive) To 'carry' or apply anything (a concept, a name...) from one type of thing to a different type of thing.
    • The ancient Romans named the planet Mars by transferring that name from a deity of their pantheon to the planet appearing in the night sky.
  7. (intransitive) To move from a wheelchair to another seating surface, or to a wheelchair from another seating surface.

Noun

UK/ˈtɹɑːns.fɜː/US/ˈtɹæns.fɚ/

transfer (countable and uncountable, plural transfers)

  1. (uncountable) The act of conveying or removing something from one place, person or thing to another.
  2. (countable) An instance of conveying or removing from one place, person or thing to another; a transferal.
    • A farmer could place an order for a new tractor part by text message and pay for it by mobile money-transfer. A supplier many miles away would then take the part to the local matternet station for airborne dispatch via drone.2012 December 1, “An internet of airborne things”, in The Economist, volume 405, number 8813, page 3 (Technology Quarterly)
  3. (countable) An act of exiting one mass transit vehicle and boarding another (typically one belonging to a different line or mode of transportation) to continue a journey.
    • Free transfers can be made between the Red and Orange Lines by walking from one of the station's platforms to another; in addition, riders using a fare card also get free transfers between bus and subway at the station.
  4. (countable) A paper receipt given to a rider of one bus (and historically also certain elevated or subway lines), allowing free entry onto another bus to continue a journey.
  5. (countable) A design conveyed by contact from one surface to another; a heat transfer.
    • All passenger stock is lettered in shaded gold leaf transfers and has never been decorated with either a crest or monogram.1956 May, D. B. McNeill, “The Sligo, Leitrim & Northern Counties Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 336
  6. A soldier removed from one troop, or body of troops, and placed in another.
  7. A pathological process by which a unilateral morbid condition on being abolished on one side of the body makes its appearance in the corresponding region upon the other side.
  8. The conveying of genetic material from one cell to another.
  9. A conventional bid which requests partner to bid the next available suit.
  10. A person who transfers or is transferred from one club or team to another.
  11. (countable) Of a person with limited mobility: an instance of independent or assisted movement from one stable surface to another.
    • Understanding car transfers and [wheelchair] loading in independent drivers is crucial to prevent shoulder pain and injury and preserve community participation.2015, Lisa Lighthall Haubert, et al, “Car transfer and wheelchair loading techniques in independent drivers with paraplegia”, in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology
    • Transfers and bed mobility are a normal part of our daily activities. Going from lying down to sitting edge of bed, rolling, getting in/out of bed, sitting and standing from bed/chairs and toilet are all examples of transfers and bed mobility.2018, Bed Mobility and Transfers (PDF), Pioneer Network

Also used as

transfer is also the ellipsis of transfer student.

transfer is also the ellipsis of language transfer.

transfer meaning in Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Tagalog

transfer in Hindi

to move or pass from one place, person or thing to another
स्थानांतरण sthānāntraṇ, हस्तांतरण hastāntraṇ
act
स्थानांतरण sthānāntraṇ

transfer in Telugu

act
బదిలీ badilī

transfer in Malayalam

to move or pass from one place, person or thing to another
സ്ഥലംമാറ്റം sthalammāṟṟaṁ

transfer in Tagalog

to move or pass from one place, person or thing to another
lipat
More languagesFewer languages
transfer in Arabic
حَوَّلَ ḥawwala, اِنْتِقَال intiqāl
transfer in Malay
tukar
transfer in Thai
ถ่ายโอน
transfer in Vietnamese
sang tên

Examples of transfer in a sentence

  • With revenues down and transfer payments up, the legislature has a full plate.
  • I'm going to the bank to put in for a transfer.
  • She transferred from the Faculty of Science to the Faculty of Medicine.

All 40 example sentences with transfer

Synonyms of transfer

6 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of transfer

Forms of transfer

Verb
third-person singular presenttransfers
present participletransferring
past participletransferred
pasttransferred
alternative formxfer
second-person singular present (archaic)transferrest
second-person singular past (archaic)transferredst
third-person singular present (archaic)transferreth
Noun
pluraltransfers

Past tense of transfer: transferred

Plural of transfer: transfers

Origin of transfer

From Latin trānsferō (“to bear across”). Distant doublet of translate. See also collate and confer, delate and defer, as well as prelate and prefer among others.

Words formed from transfer

Phrases with transfer

45 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about transfer

What does transfer mean?
Transfer means to move or pass from one place, person or thing to another.
What is transfer in Hindi?
Transfer in Hindi is स्थानांतरण (sthānāntraṇ), हस्तांतरण (hastāntraṇ). See Transfer meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is transfer?
Transfer can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce transfer?
Transfer is pronounced /tɹɑːnsˈfɜː/ (UK).
What is the past tense of transfer?
The past tense of transfer is transferred.

Words near transfer in the dictionary

  1. transfemoral
  2. transfemorally
  3. transfems
  4. transfenestration
  5. transfenestrations
  6. transfer
  7. transfer agent
  8. transfer agents
  9. transfer DNA
  10. transfer DNAs
  11. transfer earnings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: transfer (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-transfer (verb).wav, en-us-transfer.ogg.

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