Other forms: transcends, transcended, transcending
To transcend is to rise above the usual limits of something. Transcend the genre, transcend boundaries, transcends politics.
It claims that the thing goes beyond its category rather than merely being good within it, which is why it is such a common piece of praise in reviews and such a lazy one. In philosophy and religion, what transcends is beyond ordinary experience altogether. Note that the Latin means to climb across.
1verbtranscendTo rise above the usual limits of something.
“Great music transcends language; you don't need to understand the words to feel it.”
transcend is a going beyond.
Latin transcendere is trans plus scandere, to climb. Ascend, descend and scan come from the same climbing.
Latin
transcendō — to climb over, step over, surpass, transcend
Old French
transcender
Middle English
transcenden
English, today
transcend
Built from
From Middle English transcenden, from Old French transcender, from Latin transcendō (“to climb over, step over, surpass, transcend”), from trans (“over”) + scandō (“to climb”); see scan; compare ascend, descend.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA