[tran.scen.den.tal.ism] n (1803) 1: a philosophy that emphasizes the a priori conditions of knowledge and experience or the unknowable character of ultimate reality or that emphasizes the transcendent as the fundamental reality
2: a philosophy that asserts the primacy of the spiritual and transcendental over the material and empirical
3: the quality or state of being transcendental; esp: visionary idealism -- tran.scen.den.tal.ist adj or n