Dictionary

transmute en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (General-American) audio
• /tɹænzˈmjuːt/

Etymology

From Latin trānsmūtāre, from trans + mūtāre.

Meanings

1. (ambitransitive) To change or convert one thing to another, or from one state or form to another.
   • There is silence, then the sound of weeping, which escalates to heart-rending, gasping sobs. A man, the source of the lamentation, appears and as he walks across the stage, his cries transmute into song, and the slow snare drum rat-a-tat-tat of Ravel’s composition begins. 2023 April 14, Roslyn Sulcas, “Review: Grief and Mourning, Delivered With Ecstatic Vitality”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 05 May 2023:
   • She was examining a water-colour on the wall, seemed to be absorbed by it. He watched her. She was even lovelier than he had remembered; or rather her loveliness had been, in some subtle way, transmuted. Something had given to her a graver, nobler beauty. Last night’s nymph had become the Madonna of this morning. Despite her dress, which was of a tremendous tartan, she diffused the pale authentic radiance of a spirituality most high, most simple. The Duke wondered where lay the change in her. He could not understand. Suddenly she turned to him, and he understood. No longer the black pearl and the pink, but two white pearls!... He thrilled to his heart’s core. 1911 October 26, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, or, An Oxford Love Story, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, published 1912, →OCLC:
   • Did the base metals transmute to gold?
   • Mary is sister to the marginalized women who live unchronicled lives in oppressive situations. It does her no honor to rip her out of her conflictual, dangerous historical circumstances and transmute her into an icon of a peaceful, middle-class life robed in royal blue. 2000 June 17, Elizabeth A. Johnson, “Mary of Nazareth: Friend of God and Prophet”, in America, volume 182, number 21, archived from the original on 25 Jan 2025:
   • But others declare that no Creature can be made or tranſmuted into a better or vvorſe, or transformed into another ſpecies or ſimilitude, by man, or devill. […] Martinus [i.e., Martin] Delrio the Jeſuit accounts this degeneration of Man into a Beaſt to be an illuſion, deceptive and repugnant to Nature; for, the ſoule of man cannot informe a beaſts body, […] 1653, John Bulwer, “Scene XXIIII. Cruell and Fantasticall Inventions of Men Practised upon Their Bodies in a Supposed Way of Bravery, and Wicked Practices both of Men and Devils to Alter and Deforme the Humane Fabricke”, in Anthropometamorphosis: Man Transform’d; or, The Artificial Changling […], 2nd edition, London: […] William Hunt, →OCLC, page 521:
   • The alchemists tried to transmute base metals to gold.
   • Etzler was a follower of the wonkish French utopian Charles Fourier, who promised that the scientific reinvention of nature would transmute the saltwater into lemonade. 2025 March 18, Samuel Moyn, “Can Democrats Learn to Dream Big Again?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 27 Mar 2025:

Forms

Deriveds

untransmuted · retransmute

Hypernyms

change · alter

Relateds

transmutate · transmutant · transmutable · transmutability · transmutation

Synonyms

convert · transmute · metamorphose · evolve · alchemise · transform · transfigurate · transume · draw · transfigure · transmogrify · transmogrify · develop · metamorphize · reconvert · transmogrify · transmute · metamorphosize · transform · metamorphose · metamorphize · shift · transform

Translations (15)

de verwandeln (transitive: to convert one thing into another) · fi muuttaa (transitive: to convert one thing into another) · es transmutarse (intransitive: to convert one thing into another) · es trasmutarse (intransitive: to convert one thing into another) · bg превръщам (transitive: to convert one thing into another) · mi whakaahuakē (transitive: to convert one thing into another) · es trasmutar (transitive: to convert one thing into another) · ca transmutar (transitive: to convert one thing into another) · es transmutar (transitive: to convert one thing into another) · fr transmuer (transitive: to convert one thing into another) · de umwandeln (transitive: to convert one thing into another) · ro transmuta (transitive: to convert one thing into another) · nl omvormen (transitive: to convert one thing into another) · fi muuttua (transitive: to convert one thing into another) · ja 変移 (transitive: to convert one thing into another)