To transcend something is to rise above it, to go past the limit it sets. Music transcends language: it reaches people who share no words. A film transcends its small budget: the money should have limited it, but it turned out better than that limit allowed. The word carries a sense of climbing out of a box that was supposed to hold you, and it usually carries approval — what transcends is admired. Two flavours worth separating. The everyday one means simply 'to be greater than, to go beyond' — problems that transcend national borders, a talent that transcends her age. The heavier one is religious and philosophical: to transcend the physical world, to transcend the self, meaning to move to a level above ordinary human experience altogether. Because of that second flavour the word always sounds serious and slightly lofty; you would not use it about small things. 'This soup transcends' is a joke, and English speakers do make that joke.