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
  • Diversity and reinvention Just as American culture is continuously mutating, American music is constantly being reinvented.
    Ted Olson, The Conversation, 2 July 2026
  • Virus strains may also mutate to spread less efficiently or become less deadly, meaning this outbreak may ultimately pose little threat to human health.
    Ryan Brennan, Kansas City Star, 1 July 2026
Verb
  • By watching and analyzing how the soft fingers deformed, the AI could tell the difference between touching sand and touching the pen, estimate the pen’s location, and guide the gripper to lift it out.
    Maryna Holovnova, New Atlas, 20 July 2026
  • Working on his audio venture makes Jacob more narcissistic and less socially competent; the podcast deforms his understanding of what friends are for.
    Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 13 July 2026
Verb
  • Helen’s famous face has been disfigured, presumably by her angry husband, Menelaus; the sorceress Circe uses her witchcraft in self-defense, seemingly as a result of traumatic encounters with men.
    Caroline Mimbs Nyce, New Yorker, 17 July 2026
  • Chris Brown was found liable by a Los Angeles jury on Tuesday for $13 million in the gruesome case of a dog that mauled and disfigured his housekeeper at his home in 2020.
    Chris Willman, Variety, 1 July 2026
Verb
  • This landmark project aims to redefine homeownership by integrating resilience, wellness, and long-term affordability.
    Jennifer Castenson, Forbes.com, 20 July 2026
  • On July 3, 2026, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce redefined what a celebrity wedding could look like.
    Giovana Gelhoren, InStyle, 18 July 2026
Verb
  • The least costly and least distorting way to solve the entire financing gap is to extend Social Security's base beyond paychecks to capital income -- capital gains, dividends, interest and pass-through business income.
    Teresa Ghilarducci, Forbes.com, 17 July 2026
  • Is realism based only on minds untouched by illness or some other distorting factor, or at least not so touched that that mind becomes, as my grandmother’s is, unbound?
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 17 July 2026
Verb
  • After the abuses of Watergate, DOJ refashioned itself to resist political interference by the White House in the name of dispensing impartial justice.
    Quinta Jurecic, The Atlantic, 16 July 2026
  • Kingsoft Cloud is refashioning itself into an artificial intelligence cloud player — a move that should drive its shares higher, according to Morgan Stanley.
    Liz Napolitano, CNBC, 7 July 2026
Verb
  • Third, who in your organization has permission to redesign, not merely to optimize?
    Srini Attili, Forbes.com, 20 July 2026
  • Advertisement Leaders who rise to this moment will be those who treat AI not as a headline, but as a mandate to redesign how their organizations—and their people—work.
    Nigel Vaz, Time, 20 July 2026
Verb
  • Lyons told investors in July 2025 after those sales that Fiserv would need to revise its guidance.
    Matt Peterson, CNBC, 21 July 2026
  • The June jobs report showed leisure and hospitality jobs plunged by 61,000 positions – a number so dumbfounding that economists widely expect that to get revised .
    David Goldman, CNN Money, 20 July 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Transmogrify.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/transmogrify. Accessed 22 Jul. 2026.

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