Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Transition \Tran*si"tion\, n. [L. transitio: cf. F. transition.
   See {Transient}.]
   1. Passage from one place or state to another; charge; as,
      the transition of the weather from hot to cold.

            There is no death, what seems so is transition.
                                                  --Longfellow.

   2. (Mus.) A direct or indirect passing from one key to
      another; a modulation.

   3. (Rhet.) A passing from one subject to another.

            [He] with transition sweet, new speech resumes.
                                                  --Milton.

   4. (Biol.) Change from one form to another.

   Note: This word is sometimes pronounced tran*sish"un; but
         according to Walker, Smart, and most other authorities,
         the customary and preferable pronunciation is
         tran*sizh"un, although this latter mode violates
         analogy. Other authorities say tran*zish"un.

   {Transition rocks} (Geol.), a term formerly applied to the
      lowest uncrystalline stratified rocks (graywacke) supposed
      to contain no fossils, and so called because thought to
      have been formed when the earth was passing from an
      uninhabitable to a habitable state.