mutating

present participle of mutate
as in changing
to pass from one form, state, or level to another colored lights that slowly mutate from green to blue and so on across the color spectrum

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of mutating This dark side to Gen Z’s millennial backlash and desire to relive the turn of the millennium is showing signs of mutating in disturbing and unprecedented directions. Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 21 Oct. 2025 Once dismissed as a Nineties fad, shoegaze has never stopped mutating and expanding as a musical language. Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 17 Oct. 2025 However, such dormancy could be a life strategy too, keeping the bacterium stable with its DNA replicated (albeit with next to no chance of mutating or evolving) every time the host divides. New Atlas, 16 Oct. 2025 The slaying of the serpent was a mythological superspreader, mutating and proliferating across the Indo-European world and beyond. Manvir Singh, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025 Among the familiar faces fans will encounter are the heroine, Lucy, the Ghoul, and Maximus, as well as a gaggle of mutating and robotic foes. Simon Thompson, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2025 But the form is alive and mutating elsewhere. Arkansas Online, 14 Aug. 2025 Soon, people in the building are dealing with the quickly mutating microorganism that makes bodies explode. Ryan Gajewski, HollywoodReporter, 6 Aug. 2025 As the temperature rises underground, this highly contagious and rapidly mutating microorganism multiplies and unleashes its brain-controlling, body-bursting terrors on the facility’s inhabitants – human and otherwise. Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 6 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mutating
Verb
  • By refusing to specify details of the case, the government keeps the possibility alive of changing their reasoning or their claims to have the same effect for different reasons—just as the mob changes its reasoning for killing Cinna.
    JSTOR Daily, JSTOR Daily, 23 Oct. 2025
  • Of course, the heaviest anti-Shannon edit came from Sage, who noticed everything from the register of Shannon’s voice changing to her adversary being a giant shark wearing a cute seal mask.
    Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 23 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Both parishes are dotted with towns and cities of varying sizes.
    Christopher Cann, USA Today, 27 Oct. 2025
  • This year’s City Council crop includes four Republicans, a Libertarian and an unaffiliated candidate with varying degrees of name recognition and experience.
    Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Observer, 27 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • The constantly shifting allegiances are meant to form a twisty yarn in the aggregate, though the effect is largely just confusing — especially when Helen gets a subplot investigating her own past that distracts from her role as the chilly, withholding boss.
    Alison Herman, Variety, 26 Oct. 2025
  • Offenses started shifting toward using more 11 personnel (three receivers, one tight end, one running back) a little over a decade ago.
    Jourdan Rodrigue, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Mutating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mutating. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.

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