A transversely isotropic material is one with physical properties that are symmetric about an axis that is normal to a plane of isotropy. This transverse plane has infinite planes of symmetry and thus, within this plane, the material properties are the same in all directions. Hence, such materials are also known as "polar anisotropic" materials. In geophysics, vertically transverse isotropy (VTI) is also known as radial anisotropy.
This type of material exhibits hexagonal symmetry (though technically this ceases to be true for tensors of rank 6 and higher), so the number of independent constants in the (fourth-rank) elasticity tensor are reduced to 5 (from a total of 21 independent constants in the case of a fully anisotropic solid). The (second-rank) tensors of electrical resistivity, permeability, etc. have two independent constants.