transect

/træntˈsɛkt/

Other forms: transects; transecting; transected

You could say that your favorite hiking trails transect a wooded hillside, since transect means "cut across."

Use the verb transect when one thing divides or runs across another. Careful stitches might transect your grandmother's quilt, and a new highway might transect a historic city neighborhood. When you see the Latin prefix trans, you can be sure the word includes some sense of "across." In the case of transect, trans is combined with sect, from the Latin verb secare, "to cut."

Definitions of transect

1. verb

   cut across or divide transversely
   “the trails transect the property”

   type of:

   cut

   separate with or as if with an instrument