transformative

American  

[trans-fawr-muh-tiv] / trænsˈfɔr mə tɪv /

adjective

1. causing a radical and typically positive change in outlook, character, form, or condition: Voting is a culturally and socially transformative action.

   It's difficult to put into words how transformative and enriching it is to study abroad.

   Voting is a culturally and socially transformative action.

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Other Word Forms

• untransformative
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of transformative

First recorded in 1660–70; from Medieval Latin transformātīvus, equivalent to Latin transformāt-, stem of transformāre, + -īvus -ive ( def. ); see transform ( def. )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

transformative

"Western Australia has some of the world's largest banded iron formations. If we can unlock this resource at scale, it could be transformative for our energy future," lead author Kaveh Moghanirahimi said.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 29, 2026

Until a few years ago, Levanon was a longtime skeptic of the idea that transformative technologies would sharply boost productivity and speed up the long-term growth of the U.S. economy.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026

I’m not, I don’t pretend to be an enormously transformative actor, hunting for the “chameleon” praise.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026

In his ruling, Judge William Alsup said Anthropic's use of the authors' books was "exceedingly transformative" and therefore allowed under US law.

From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026

In two transformative decades between 1920 and 1940, the first two of these questions—i.e., variation and evolution—would be solved by unique alliances between geneticists, anatomists, cell biologists, statisticians, and mathematicians.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Related Words

• life-changing
• transformational