English Synonyms and Antonyms

Negotiate has more reference to execution than treat; nations may treat of peace without result, but when a
treaty is negotiated, peace is secured; the citizens of the two nations are then free to transact business with
one another. Compare DO.
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TRANSACTION.
Synonyms:
act, action, affair, business, deed, doing, proceeding.
One's acts or deeds may be exclusively his own; his transactions involve the agency or participation of others.
A transaction is something completed; a proceeding is or is viewed as something in progress; but since
transaction is often used to include the steps leading to the conclusion, while proceedings may result in
action, the dividing line between the two words becomes sometimes quite faint, tho transaction often
emphasizes the fact of something done, or brought to a conclusion. Both transactions and proceedings are
used of the records of a deliberative body, especially when published; strictly used, the two are distinguished;
as, the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London give in full the papers read; the
Proceedings of the American Philological Association give in full the business done, with mere abstracts of or
extracts from the papers read. Compare ACT; BUSINESS.
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TRANSCENDENTAL.
Synonyms:
a priori, intuitive, original, primordial, transcendent.
Intuitive truths are those which are in the mind independently of all experience, not being derived from
experience nor limited by it, as that the whole is greater than a part, or that things which are equal to the same
thing are equal to one another. All intuitive truths or beliefs are transcendental. But transcendental is a wider
term than intuitive, including all within the limits of thought that is not derived from experience, as the ideas
of space and time. "Being is transcendental.... As being can not be included under any genus, but transcends
them all, so the properties or affections of being have also been called transcendental." K.-F. Vocab. Philos.
p. 530. "Transcendent he [Kant] employed to denote what is wholly beyond experience, being neither given as
an a posteriori nor a priori element of cognition--what therefore transcends every category of thought." K.-F.
Vocab. Philos. p. 531. Transcendental has been applied in the language of the Emersonian school to the soul's
supposed intuitive knowledge of things divine and human, so far as they are capable of being known to man.
Compare MYSTERIOUS.
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TRANSIENT.
Synonyms:
brief, fleeting, fugitive, short, ephemeral, flitting, momentary, temporary, evanescent, flying, passing,
transitory.
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
287

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Transient and transitory are both derived from the same original source (L. trans, over, and eo, go), denoting
that which quickly passes or is passing away, but there is between them a fine shade of difference. A thing is
transient which in fact is not lasting; a thing is transitory which by its very nature must soon pass away; a
thing is temporary (L. tempus, time) which is intended to last or be made use of but a little while; as, a
transient joy; this transitory life; a temporary chairman. Ephemeral (Gr. epi, on, and hemera, day) literally
lasting but for a day, often marks more strongly than transient exceeding brevity of duration; it agrees with
transitory in denoting that its object is destined to pass away, but is stronger, as denoting not only its certain
but its speedy extinction; thus that which is ephemeral is looked upon as at once slight and perishable, and the
word carries often a suggestion of contempt; man's life is transitory, a butterfly's existence is ephemeral; with
no solid qualities or worthy achievements a pretender may sometimes gain an ephemeral popularity. That
which is fleeting is viewed as in the act of passing swiftly by, and that which is fugitive (L. fugio, flee) as
eluding attempts to detain it; that which is evanescent (L. evanesco, from e, out, and vanus, empty, vain) as in
the act of vanishing even while we gaze, as the hues of the sunset.
Antonyms:
abiding, eternal, immortal, lasting, perpetual, undying, enduring, everlasting, imperishable, permanent,
persistent, unfading.
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UNION.
Synonyms:
coalition, conjunction, juncture, unification, combination, junction, oneness, unity.