transitional

adjective

tran·​si·​tion·​al tran(t)-ˈsi-sh(ə-)nəl 

tran(t)-ˈsi-zh(ə-)nəl,

tran-ˈzi-sh(ə-)nəl 

: marked by transition : involving, providing, or consisting of a passage, movement, or change from one state, condition, subject, place, etc., to another

a transitional passage in music

They are often transitional areas between water environments and dry land, and are populated by many trees and plants that can put up with the occasional flood …

—JoAnn Shroyer

The social worlds of neighborhood and village are now less important as transitional zones between home and nonhome settings.

—Theano S. Terkenli

… turning into a civilian coup, that … established a transitional government and prepared the way for multi-party elections.

—Larry Diamond

… an animal about the size of a turkey that they contend was a flightless bird, a transitional figure between some carnivorous dinosaurs and modern birds.

—John Noble Wilford

transitionally adverb

The problem then is to structure a sequence of reforms that is politically consistent with the social mores of the Soviet Union, economically coherent, and transitionally sound …

—Edgar L. Feige

Examples of transitional in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The governor’s proposal includes new initiatives such as: $2.1 billion to support full implementation of transitional kindergarten for all California children who turn 4 years old by Sept. 1 of the school year. —Dave Mason, The Washington Examiner, 6 June 2025

Many also criticized the transitional government as giving only token representation to women and minorities. —Arkansas Online, 1 June 2025

This transitional period coincides with the dramatic rise of social media and related communications technology at the grassroots level, potentially making each individual an agent of news distribution, for better or worse. —Chicago Tribune, 30 May 2025

Her preschool offers childcare services to babies who are 0 to 2 years old, early preschool for 2- to 3-year-olds, preschool for 3- to 5-year-olds, and school age classrooms for transitional kindergarten, kindergarten and first-grade students. —Julie Gallant, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1819, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for transitional

• additional
• conditional
• nutritional
• positional
• traditional
• volitional
• compositional
• definitional
• depositional
• dispositional
• intuitional
• nontraditional

Medical Definition

transitional

adjective

tran·​si·​tion·​al

-ˈish-nəl, -ˈizh-ən-ᵊl

1

: of, relating to, or characterized by transition

2

: of, relating to, or being epithelium (as in the urinary bladder) that consists of several layers of soft cuboidal cells which become flattened when stretched (as when the bladder is distended)