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
Word Warriors: Four Years of Words Worth Reviving
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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.
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
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
Which leaves open the question of whether New York state prosecutors can transmogrify this conduct into a state crime.
From Washington Post • Apr. 4, 2023
“That a special purpose grand jury cannot issue an indictment does not diminish the criminal nature of its work or somehow transmogrify that criminal investigation into a civil one,” Judge McBurney wrote.
From New York Times • Oct. 8, 2022
Whoeber said Washington White wanted ter transmogrify hissef to a new planet?
From On a Torn-Away World Or, the Captives of the Great Earthquake by Rockwood, Roy
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.
