transmogrify
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of transmogrify
1650–60; earlier also transmigrify, transmography; apparently a pseudo-Latinism with transfigure or transmigrate + -ify
Explanation
You've seen something transmogrify, or transform completely, if you've ever watched the process of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Use the verb transmogrify when a person or thing changes in a way that surprises you. A fairy tale frog transmogrifies into a prince in one well-known story, and a tomboy might be said to transmogrify when she puts on a frilly dress to be a flower girl in a wedding. The origin of transmogrify isn't clear, although one theory is that it was a mistake made long ago, when someone meant to say transmigrate, or "pass into another body after death."
Vocabulary lists containing transmogrify
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Grendel
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"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 19
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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:
Evolution has similarly purloined existing features and modified them, using great thrift, for example, to transmogrify a piece of jaw into an ear or to transform a leg into a wing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
Seeing Powell transmogrify from nerdy Gary to five o’clock shadow Ron and back again is both hilarious and tantalizing, while Arjona has a big-eyed innocence crossed with wily smarts that keeps everyone, including Gary, guessing.
From New York Times ● May 23, 2024
It’s likely in the middle of that process now, and could transmogrify itself into a star in as little as 200,000 years.
From Scientific American ● Apr. 24, 2023
The play is treated as though it might at any moment transmogrify into a musical.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2019
I knew it was necessary to surprise him, and so I borrowed the photograph and used it to transmogrify the queen of spades card.
From The Gates of Chance by Van Tassel Sutphen
Consequently, construction delays mounted, all transmogrified into change orders.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
Like other climate denial claims, the urban planning concept transmogrified in the depths of the internet.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 19, 2023
Hideously transmogrified, they struggle upstream past the banks of Pacific Northwest lakes, rivers and streams in an intricate and terrifying water ballet.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 27, 2022
Maybe before you saw the package in Trader Joe's you assumed it might mean cheese on top of bread, or bread stuffed with cheese, or maybe bread that has been somehow transmogrified into cheese.
From Salon ● Feb. 7, 2022
The civilization he meant to build has transmogrified to a forest thick with traps.
From "Grendel" by John Gardner
According to cast member Kyle Sullivan, “There was this weird dynamic where they were taking something that exists in an adult context, like ‘Fear Factor,’ and transmogrifying it for kids.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2024
With his endpaper paintings, Bradford demonstrated a talent for transmogrifying everyday objects by layering, sanding, gouging, scraping and tearing until they obliquely reflected his peculiar perspective on the world.
From New York Times ● Apr. 19, 2023
This time the player is Detective Sebastian Castellanos a troubled detective who must search for his lost daughter in a weird, transmogrifying town.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 15, 2017
Guitar Hero reanimated the music video game genre when it launched in 2005, magically transmogrifying players into bona fide fret-shredding, tremolo-slapping Rock Gods.
From Time ● Aug. 23, 2016
Mrs. K. is an excellent hand at transmogrifying things, and in a large family such articles never come amiss.”
From Flora Lyndsay or, Passages in an Eventful Life by Susanna Moodie
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.
