transmogrify

Definition of transmogrifynext

Synonym Chooser

How is the word transmogrify different from other verbs like it?

Some common synonyms of transmogrify are convert, metamorphose, transfigure, transform, and transmute. While all these words mean "to change a thing into a different thing," transmogrify suggests a strange or preposterous metamorphosis.

a story in which a frog is transmogrified into a prince

When is convert a more appropriate choice than transmogrify?

While the synonyms convert and transmogrify are close in meaning, convert implies a change fitting something for a new or different use or function.

converted the study into a nursery

When is it sensible to use metamorphose instead of transmogrify?

The meanings of metamorphose and transmogrify largely overlap; however, metamorphose suggests an abrupt or startling change induced by or as if by magic or a supernatural power.

awkward girls metamorphosed into graceful ballerinas

In what contexts can transfigure take the place of transmogrify?

The synonyms transfigure and transmogrify are sometimes interchangeable, but transfigure implies a change that exalts or glorifies.

joy transfigured her face

When can transform be used instead of transmogrify?

While in some cases nearly identical to transmogrify, transform implies a major change in form, nature, or function.

transformed a small company into a corporate giant

When might transmute be a better fit than transmogrify?

In some situations, the words transmute and transmogrify are roughly equivalent. However, transmute implies transforming into a higher element or thing.

attempted to transmute lead into gold

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 transmogrify During the negotiations between Obama and Raúl, there was still the idea that somehow parts of the revolution—its socialist project—could be saved, and that Cuba could somehow transmogrify into a fairer, more modern place with a social cradle. Caroline Mimbs Nyce, New Yorker, 29 Sep. 2025 Unlike conventional corn syrup, a form of glucose derived from starch that has been around for over 200 years, high fructose corn syrup wasn’t developed until after World War II, when scientists in Japan began tinkering with the grain, hoping to transmogrify this staple into new products. Stephen Mihm, Mercury News, 5 Aug. 2025 In that freedom, hip-hop music transmogrified from songs to studies. Keith Nelson, Men's Health, 12 Apr. 2023 After 40 years of getting worked over, Mercury would be transmogrified, or almost magically altered, and totally kaput. Adam Hadhazy, Popular Mechanics, 7 Mar. 2023 Or change its identity or transmogrify into a different social function of a space. Erik Morse, Vogue, 31 Jan. 2023 For those looking to dig deeper, here are the best books that deconstruct, analyze, and even transmogrify the star known as Marilyn Monroe. Nathan Smith, Vulture, 23 Sep. 2022 For most basketball fans, that joy will transmogrify into disappointment, sadness or even fleeting anger once their favorite team is eliminated. Paul Eisenberg, chicagotribune.com, 21 Mar. 2021 In the 1980s and 1990s this transmogrified into an attack on science. Naomi Oreskes, Scientific American, 1 July 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for transmogrify
Verb
  • As long as Wembanyama continues to mutate, San Antonio will stick.
    Joel Lorenzi, New York Times, 31 May 2026
  • Both variants cause very similar symptoms, even though the virus is known to mutate rapidly, Yancey said.
    NBC news, NBC news, 29 May 2026
Verb
  • When oil wells are shut in, the pressure underground can become imbalanced, deforming the underlying structure.
    David Goldman, CNN Money, 27 May 2026
  • The team demonstrated this by printing soft lattices and wavy filaments that deform in dramatically different ways under heat.
    New Atlas, New Atlas, 19 May 2026
Verb
  • The flames claimed the girls as collateral, scarring both of them but disfiguring Anaia, who worked the hardest to save Ruby.
    Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker, 1 June 2026
  • Foster pleaded guilty to one count of attempt to kill, disfigure, or maim an animal of another in June, according to the court record.
    James Powel, USA Today, 15 May 2026
Verb
  • But apologies can change relationships, and in the case of political apologies, can redefine history.
    Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 2 June 2026
  • The Artemis program, proposing lunar habitation and infrastructure, stands to redefine the role of our species within the universe.
    Time, Time, 2 June 2026
Verb
  • Mercury’s clash with Neptune distorts the reality of a situation.
    USA TODAY, USA Today, 3 June 2026
  • The mold shapes itself into a tall biped that resembles a stick figure or distorted skeleton.
    Dani Di Placido, Forbes.com, 31 May 2026
Verb
  • Lily Allen, Jack Whitehall and Timothy Spall also star in Tina Gharavi's SXSW London opener, which refashions Woolf's diffuse, ruminative feminist novel into a straightforwardly inspirational tale.
    Guy Lodge, Variety, 3 June 2026
  • Interventions in foreign countries have long been attempts to refashion America’s identity and to reinvigorate, through external validation, the weakening faith of Americans in their own institutions.
    Wyatt Williams, Harpers Magazine, 2 June 2026
Verb
  • Meals are served privately, and the dining deck has been redesigned with multiple levels to create a sense of privacy.
    Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 2 June 2026
  • The people who’ve spent a decade building the audit process may not be the ones to redesign it.
    Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 2 June 2026
Verb
  • The agency also revised the job data from previous months.
    Dian Zhang, USA Today, 6 June 2026
  • The company in April revised its capital expenditure forecast this year to between $180 billion and $190 billion, up from its previous estimate of $175 billion to $185 billion.
    Lora Kolodny, CNBC, 5 June 2026

Browse Nearby Words

Podcast

Cite this Entry

“Transmogrify.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/transmogrify. Accessed 9 Jun. 2026.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster