I. adjective
also tran·scen·dant -nt
Etymology: transcendent from Latin transcendent-, transcendens, present participle of transcendere to transcend; transcendant from French, from present participle of obsolete transcendre to transcend, from Latin transcendere
1.
a. : going beyond or exceeding usual limits : excelling, surpassing
his own detestation of the rigors of winter made the children's courage appear transcendent — Elinor Wylie
the transcendent importance of news … in a democracy — F.L.Mott
the poet … fuses the elements of a profound perception into a single transcendent vision — George Whalley
b. : proceeding beyond or lying outside of what is perceived or presented in experience
philosophers … often explicitly reject the notion of any transcendent reality beyond thought … and claim to be concerned only with thought itself and its immanent necessities — W.P.Alston
c. Kantianism : being beyond the limits of all possible experience and knowledge — contrasted with transcendental 1b
2. : being beyond comprehension : vague , obscure
too transcendent , too difficult, and too unrelated to the human heart to satisfy other men — H.O.Taylor
3. : being above material existence or apart from the universe
the ideal of a transcendent and holy being — M.R.Cohen
the idea of a source and end of life, too transcendent to the … powers of human life to be either simply comprehended by the human mind or easily manipulated — Reinhold Niebuhr
— contrasted with immanent
II. noun
also transcendant “
( -s )
: one that transcends: as
a. : a person or thing that escapes classification in any accepted category ; specifically : a predicate that cannot be classed among the Aristotelian predicaments
b. Kantianism : something beyond the limits of experience and knowledge
spirit … is a transcendent over against that which can be perceived by the senses — R.K.Bultmann