transmutation

1. 1.

   an act that changes the form or character or substance of something

   Synonymstransubstantiation

   Broaderconversion
2. 2.

   a qualitative change

   Synonymstransformationshift

   Broaderchange

   Narrowerimprovementpopulation shiftpyrolysissea changesublimationtin pestconversiondegenerationstrengtheningweakening
3. 3.

   (physics) the change of one chemical element into another (as by nuclear decay or radioactive bombardment)

   “the transmutation of base metals into gold proved to be impossible”

   Broaderchange

   physics

Other forms of transmutation

plural

transmutations·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about transmutation

What does transmutation mean?

transmutation means "an act that changes the form or character or substance of something". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in transmutation?

transmutation has 5 syllables: tran-smu-ta-ti-on. The stress falls on "ti".

What is another word for transmutation?

Close synonyms include transubstantiation, transformation, shift. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is transmutation a common word?

transmutation is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.