transhistorical

adjective

trans·​his·​tor·​i·​cal ˌtran(t)s-(h)i-ˈstȯr-i-kəl 

ˌtranz-,

-ˈstär-

: transcending historical bounds

Examples of transhistorical in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Now Orozco resurrects one of the archaic and at the same time transhistorical models and actually functioning structures that had always fused function, use value, and immaterial spirituality: the architectural typology of the bridge. —Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Artforum, 1 June 2025

McCloskey’s insistence that people should evaluate situations in transhistorical terms rather than protest the inequities of their own time and place proceeds from a wrongheaded conception of freedom that excises us from our contexts. —Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 21 Apr. 2023

Not for the shallow motive of transhistorical blame, much less to induce personal comfort or discomfort, but rather in the service of truth. —Zadie Smith, The New Yorker, 23 Jan. 2022

More generally, if history is one long catastrophe returning in new guises, the work of historical reckoning can pass into a transhistorical fatalism. —Ben Lerner, The New York Review of Books, 25 Feb. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1909, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for transhistorical

• ahistorical
• allegorical
• metaphorical
• oratorical
• unhistorical
• historical
• rhetorical
• sociohistorical