transmutation
Change, alteration.
Noun
- Change, alteration.
Synonyms: mutation permutation transfiguration alteration change deviation modification transformation transition transmutation variation
- The conversion of one thing into something else; transformation.
- Up I rose and forth I fared: / Took my plunge within the bath-pool, pacified the watch-dog scared, / Saw proceed the transmutation—Jura's black to one gold glow, […] - 1877 September 14, Robert Browning, “La Saisiaz”,...
Synonyms: development metamorphosis transfiguration conversion transfigurement transformation transmogrification transmutation sea change
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(alchemy) The supposed transformation of one element into another, especially of a base metal into gold.
- The transmutation of metals was secondary to the main aim, which was the spiritual transformation of the adept. - 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 261:
Synonyms: development metamorphosis transfiguration conversion transfigurement transformation transmogrification transmutation sea change
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(nuclear physics) The actual transformation of one element into another by a nuclear reaction.
- Years later, scientists learned that the sun’s light—visible and invisible—is merely the by-product of a process alchemists had vainly tried to reproduce for centuries—the transmutation of one element into another. That...
Synonyms: development metamorphosis transfiguration conversion transfigurement transformation transmogrification transmutation sea change
Origin
Late 14th century, from Old French transmutacion (“transformation, metamorphosis”), from Late Latin transmutationem, from Latin transmutare (“to change”).