transfigure
Americanverb
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to change or cause to change in appearance
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to become or cause to become more exalted
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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transfiguresimple
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transfiguressimple
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have transfiguredperfect
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has transfiguredperfect
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am transfiguringprogressive
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are transfiguringprogressive
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is transfiguringprogressive
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have been transfiguringperfect progressive
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has been transfiguringperfect progressive
Past
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transfiguredsimple
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had transfiguredperfect
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was transfiguringprogressive
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were transfiguringprogressive
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had been transfiguringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of transfigure
1250–1300; Middle English transfiguren < Latin trānsfigūrāre to change in shape. See trans-, figure
Explanation
To transfigure is to change or alter something, often so that it becomes even more amazing or beautiful. That colorful mural you painted really transfigures your bedroom! Transfigure has a Latin root, transfigurare, "change the shape of." While its meaning is similar to transform, there's usually an additional sense of "make better" in transfigure. When you come home dirty and tired after a camping trip, a hot shower and clean clothes will transfigure you. And adding grated cheese, chopped basil, and a drizzle of good olive oil can transfigure a simple dish of pasta.
Vocabulary lists containing transfigure
The Pearl
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
They appear as ready to transfigure as Furey is to switch artistic mode.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 24, 2023
These phenomena transfigure copyrights, patents, and trademarks into subjects of everyday importance.
From Salon ● Jun. 4, 2022
He helps transfigure the scene from a purely technical endeavor into a kind of weightless dance, a zero-gravity ballet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2020
In the video, Ms. Gaignard sings on, unperturbed, all the while recording the experience to transfigure it into art.
From New York Times ● Jan. 6, 2016
It kept crackling and sparking at odd moments, and every time Ron tried to transfigure his beetle it engulfed him in thick gray smoke that smelled of rotten eggs.
From "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets" by J. K. Rowling
By channeling himself into the role, he transfigures a stereotype.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 28, 2022
All great art is consoling because it transfigures our ordinary feelings into something bigger.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 11, 2016
The show, which is having its world premiere here at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, boldly transfigures the whimsical charms of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's movie into sparkling musical comedy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2015
Just as “Queen of Earth” transfigures its narrative conflicts into an exalted cinematic music, it retrospectively emphasizes the tonal values of Perry’s earlier films.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 18, 2015
Such love destroys the baser passion of sense, or transfigures it so that we know it no longer.
From The Religious Sentiment Its Source and Aim: A Contribution to the Science and Philosophy of Religion by Daniel Garrison Brinton
Her summer is transfigured by their innocent trysts: “There was the still water of a lake. There were a garden’s scents and its delicious twilight air.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 9, 2026
His inauguration was a ritual of devotion, an arena where the less powerful — which means practically everybody — was transfigured by his presence.
From Salon ● Jan. 31, 2025
At the instant the lunar disk slips entirely over the solar disk, the sun is abruptly transfigured into a foreign object.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 2024
The following year, he changed his own name to Akhenaten, meaning “the transfigured spirit of the solar orb,” and moved himself and his entire family to the new city.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
In the powerful humidity the powdered mix got transfigured like Lot’s poor wife who looked back at Gomorrah and got turned to a pillar of salt.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
The result was, if not a religious experience, then a spiritually transfiguring one.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2025
Still, the speed at which generative AI appears to be capable of transfiguring workplaces — seemingly overnight — is dizzying, especially relative to prior technological breakthroughs.
From Seattle Times ● May 12, 2023
He envisaged an audience of élite aesthetes who would carry a transfiguring message to the outer world.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 7, 2019
Born in Antigua, Kincaid invents aesthetics which are wholly unique, transfiguring human form and surroundings, in particular, the Caribbean landscapes.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 2, 2019
As artists will, they stole everything they could, transfiguring the images further.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
