transmogrify

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 In that freedom, hip-hop music transmogrified from songs to studies. Keith Nelson, Men's Health, 12 Apr. 2023 In the 1980s and 1990s this transmogrified into an attack on science. Naomi Oreskes, Scientific American, 1 July 2020 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 Cady seduces like a snake, charming his victims into their demise, but can as quickly transmogrify into a deranged beast striking fear into the Bowden family during a torrential storm. Lea Anderson, Men's Health, 29 Aug. 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 Christians have been borrowing from other religions since the days when the pagan feast of Saturnalia transmogrified into Christmas and the Gaelic festival of Samhain became All Saints’ Day. The Economist, 24 Oct. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for transmogrify
Verb
  • Public-health experts have warned for months that the COVID-19 virus isn’t gone—and, far from waning, SARS-CoV-2 has mutated yet again into a new variant.
    Alice Park, Time, 28 May 2025
  • Many humans mutated into forms similar to beings of legend like dwarves and trolls.
    Rob Wieland, Forbes.com, 15 May 2025
Verb
  • This activity, characterized by a feature called a corona, may be deforming the planet’s surface in a way similar to events in Earth’s past.
    Stephanie Edwards, Discover Magazine, 14 May 2025
  • The analysis revealed that the mantle beneath the near versus the far side of the moon has a difference in its ability to deform—one of about 2–3 percent.
    Ian Randall, MSNBC Newsweek, 14 May 2025
Verb
  • She hasn't been seen in public for a decade, having been disfigured by a plastic surgery procedure gone wrong after her divorce from Peter.
    Randall Colburn, EW.com, 23 May 2025
  • This experimental medical treatment of young boys that disfigures them and sterilizes them for life.
    Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 24 Apr. 2025
Verb
  • This will, in turn, redefine your sense of independence and strength, urging you to balance that fire and passion with responsibility and integrity.
    Valerie Mesa, People.com, 23 May 2025
  • Aging is being redefined not as a linear path to decline, but as a modifiable, and in some ways reversible, biological process.
    Brent Gleeson, Forbes.com, 23 May 2025
Verb
  • The cell phone camera has become both the tool humans use to perform and the reason that performance distorts even further in the eyes of others.
    CT Jones, Rolling Stone, 21 May 2025
  • Unfortunately, this racial lens merely distorts the rivalry narrative, transforming what should be celebrated as an engaging competitive dynamic into something unnecessarily contentious.
    Lindsey Darvin, Forbes.com, 20 May 2025
Verb
  • Their nine-month imprisonment presaged an evisceration of human rights in Cambodia by Hun Sen, the longtime leader who refashioned a young democracy into a dictatorial dynasty.
    Sun Narin, New York Times, 7 Apr. 2025
  • The streaming potency of the 2014 film helped motivate the decision by Disney to mobilize a Moana streaming series for Disney+, which was then refashioned into a theatrical sequel.
    Dade Hayes, Deadline, 27 Jan. 2025
Verb
  • Surface Pro Flex Keyboard for $400: Microsoft redesigned its signature keyboard cover for the new Surface Pro (11th Edition).
    Luke Larsen, Wired News, 21 May 2025
  • Its mission, clearly accepted, is to redesign Earth according to its own controversial notions of progress and preferred sentient AI-to-human ratio.
    Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune, 20 May 2025
Verb
  • Against this backdrop, Canberra, too, is revising its defense priorities from top to bottom.
    ELY RATNER, Foreign Affairs, 27 May 2025
  • That’s the number of times the Trump administration has either announced new tariff policies or revised existing ones since Trump’s inauguration in January, as tallied by The Washington Post.
    Alison Durkee, Forbes.com, 26 May 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Transmogrify.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/transmogrify. Accessed 2 Jun. 2025.

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