transpire

UK/tɹænˈspaɪ̯ə(ɹ)//tɹænˈspaɪ̯ɚ/

transpire verb: to give off (vapour, waste matter etc.); to exhale (an odour etc.).

Verb

transpire (third-person singular simple present transpires, present participle transpiring, simple past and past participle transpired)

(ambitransitive) To give off (vapour, waste matter etc.); to exhale (an odour etc.).
(intransitive, obsolete) To perspire.

Synonyms:

sweat
(intransitive) Of plants, to give off water and waste products through the stomata.
(intransitive) To become known; to escape from secrecy.
- It eventually transpired that the murder victim had been a notorious blackmailer.
- The story of Paulina's and Maximilian's mutual attachment had transpired through many of the travellers.1832, Thomas De Quincey, Klosterheim Or, the Masque
Synonyms:

come to light, emerge, develop
(broadly, intransitive) To happen, take place.
- Although I was prevented from attending the 1952 annual conference, I was immediately informed as to what had transpired.1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 166
- But there is a school of thought that holds that the more you talk about recession, the more likely it is to transpire.2018 September 21, Mark Rice-Oxley, “Don't mention the R-word”, in The Guardian
Synonyms:

come about, come to pass, occur, bechance, befall, behap, belimp, betide, betime, beworth

transpire meaning in Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada and Vietnamese

transpire in Kannada

ಸೂಸು, ಆವಿಸೂಸು, ಹೊರಬಿಡು, ಗೊತ್ತಾಗು, ಅರಿವಾಗು, ತಿಳಿದುಬರು

transpire in Vietnamese

botany: to give off water and waste products through the stomata: thoát hơi nước

Examples of transpire in a sentence

It transpired this lad was drinking orange and faculties were keen.
It transpired that the ‘free holiday’ in question was the name of a drink.
So it transpired, though not everything at Garmisch was sweetness and light.

All 23 example sentences with transpire

Synonyms of transpire

15 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of transpire

Forms of transpire

third-person singular present	transpires
present participle	transpiring
past participle	transpired
past	transpired

Past tense of transpire: transpired

Origin of transpire

Borrowed from Middle French transpirer, from Medieval Latin transpirare (“to breathe through”), from Latin trans (“across”) spirare (“to breathe”). The sense “to become known” is also present in French, while the sense “to happen” is not; the latter probably developed in English from the former.

Words formed from transpire

Words that rhyme with transpire

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about transpire

What does transpire mean?: Transpire means to give off (vapour, waste matter etc.); to exhale (an odour etc.).
What is transpire in Urdu?: Transpire in Urdu is پسینہ نکلنا, سانس نکالنا. See Transpire meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is transpire?: Transpire is a verb.
How do you pronounce transpire?: Transpire is pronounced /tɹænˈspaɪ̯ə(ɹ)/ (UK).
What is the past tense of transpire?: The past tense of transpire is transpired.

Words near transpire in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: transpire (page history and authors); transpire (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ഉണ്ടാകുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); transpire (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-transpire.ogg.

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