transmute
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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transmutes,
present (3rd person singular)
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transmuted,
past participle, past
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transmuting
present participle
verb
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to change the form, character, or substance of
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to alter (an element, metal, etc) by alchemy
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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transmutabilitynoun
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transmutablenessnoun
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transmuternoun
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untransmutabilitynoun
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untransmutablenessnoun
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transmutableadjective
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untransmutableadjective
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untransmutedadjective
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transmutablyadverb
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untransmutablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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transmutesimple
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transmutessimple
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have transmutedperfect
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has transmutedperfect
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am transmutingprogressive
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are transmutingprogressive
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is transmutingprogressive
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have been transmutingperfect progressive
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has been transmutingperfect progressive
Past
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transmutedsimple
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had transmutedperfect
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was transmutingprogressive
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were transmutingprogressive
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had been transmutingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of transmute
1400–50; late Middle English < Latin trānsmūtāre to shift, equivalent to trāns- trans- + mūtāre to change.
Explanation
Transmute is a verb meaning to change in appearance or form. For example, magical creatures can transmute into other beings. When you're fighting a wizard, don’t be surprised if he transmutes into a terrifying dragon. More realistically, you, too, can transmute your appearance — by dying your hair, piercing your nose, or changing your style of dress. Transmute often describes physical change — like when alchemists tried to transmute lead into gold — but it can also be used more figuratively to describe anything that's transformed. For example, you might transmute your sketchy memories of growing up in Boston into the Great American Novel.
Vocabulary lists containing transmute
American Gods
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The Good Earth
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The Left Hand of Darkness
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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:
The spider’s ability to transmute our human apprehensions still holds true.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
Astrologers consult a national zodiac, palm readers ring pagodas, would-be alchemists attempt to transmute mercury into gold and SIM card companies advertise dial-a-diviners.
From Barron's ● Dec. 21, 2025
"What causes something to be insulating, conducting or magnetic? Can we transmute something into a different state?"
From Science Daily ● Nov. 17, 2025
According to Israel's Basic Law, the president "has the power to pardon criminals and reduce or transmute their sentence".
From BBC ● Nov. 12, 2025
The field swarmed with charming frauds and con men, such as Cagliostro and the Count of Saint-Germain, who pretended not only to transmute the elements but also to hold the secret of immortality.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Part of their education, he insists, must be to learn disappointment—an experience this heartfelt novel transmutes into kindness and wisdom.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
But whenever I interact with my Asian women friends, that anger transmutes into laughter at the people who are so stupid they cannot distinguish between us.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2023
According to Slant magazine, the writer-director’s flair for “go-for-broke zaniness transmutes what might otherwise have been a lump of self-indulgent cliches into gold.”
From Washington Post ● Feb. 23, 2022
In his distinctive sandpaper rasp, he takes what’s timeless and transmutes it to the present.
From New York Times ● Feb. 15, 2022
This would seem amusingly childish to us were it not for the fact that in radium we, too, seem to have discovered a philosopher's stone—a substance that transmutes elements.
From Psychotherapy by James J. (James Joseph) Walsh
“Another Dimension” is his answer to the years of rejection, pain and incandescent ire, but transmuted into a vibrant, avant-garde, genre-defying gaping wound found within 11 tight tracks.
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2026
In Heaney’s poetry the personal is always transmuted by a larger vision.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
The poles of good coffee — acidity and sweetness — are transmuted, but both are still enjoyable in this cup, even if the flavor can dissipate quickly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2023
Ultimately, with Cole’s coaching, DeCruz transmuted a blue flashlight into a standing figure that brims with personality and attitude.
From New York Times ● Feb. 23, 2023
“Man might be a transmuted ape”—an idea so deeply repulsive that Owen could not even bear to contemplate it.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
The idea of transmuting black rock into useful products was born out of similar energy-security anxieties a century ago.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
We are running on the energy of farmers’ labor and transmuting it into fetish object, and it feels almost beautiful on set in Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2024
What Soddy and Rutherford realized was that nature itself is an alchemist, "transmuting" materials into other types of materials through the spontaneous process of radioactive decay.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2023
The collection showcased an intricate blend of masculine and feminine, transmuting the high-end tailoring traditions of British menswear with haute couture fabrications, harking back to Dior’s womenswear roots.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 23, 2023
By transmuting common uranium into a fissionable product that could be extracted chemically, Seaborg calculated, they could increase the supply of raw material available for a bomb by a hundredfold.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
