transgressive
transgressive Lexical Profile
transgressive Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Involving a violation of accepted or imposed social, moral, artistic, or legal boundaries.
"The director's early films were celebrated by critics for their transgressive humor and bold critique of conventional morality."
Relating to or formed by the spread of the sea over land areas, resulting in marine sedimentary deposits overlying older strata (in geology).
"Geologists analyzed the transgressive sequence of sandstone and shale to reconstruct ancient sea-level changes along the coast."
Word Nuance & Usage
In contemporary cultural, literary, and artistic criticism, "transgressive" is often used neutrally or even approvingly to describe works that boldly challenge established social taboos, rather than strictly condemning moral wrongdoing.
• Rhymes for transgressive
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed from Late Latin transgressivus, from Latin transgressus, the past participle of transgredi ("to step across" or "to overstep"), formed from trans- ("across") and gradi ("to walk" or "to step").