transform

Formstransforms, transforming, transformed

Pluraltransforms

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To greatly change the appearance or outward form of something.

   New furniture and bright colors completely transform the apartment.

   Decades of erosion transformed the cliff face into jagged spires.

   Similarconvert, transmute, transmogrify

   Note

   Latin built the word from trans, "across", and forma, "form", so its oldest picture is of something carried over into a new shape. The usual construction pairs it with into, as when alchemists hoped to transform lead into gold. Shakespeare's Much Adoe about Nothing still uses the older to: "Love may transform me to an oyster." Transmute and transmogrify are its closest synonyms.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To change the nature, condition, or function of something; to convert it into something else.

   Grief can transform a once-cheerful person into someone withdrawn.

   The reforms transformed the country's economy within a decade.

   Similartransmute, transmogrify

   Note

   Here the change is inward, as opposed to the change of outward form. The King James Bible of 1611 urges "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." What alters is nature, heart or function rather than shape, which is why convert sits close by. The passive suits this sense well: people and economies are transformed by an experience, a reform or a faith.

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To go through a major change in appearance or character.

   Tadpoles transform into frogs over several weeks.

   His attitude transformed after the long illness.

   Similartransmute, transmogrify

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To change a mathematical expression into another form without altering its value.

   Mathematicians transform coordinates to simplify the geometry of a problem.

   The algorithm transformed the data into the frequency domain.

   Similarconvert, map

   Note

   Mathematics uses the verb strictly. The object takes a new form while its value stays fixed, so a transformed expression still says the same thing. One transforms coordinates, an expression or a data set, usually to make a problem easier to see. The operation that does this work has its own noun, a transform.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A mathematical operation, frequently an integration, that turns one function into a different function.

   Each transform maps one function to another according to a fixed rule.

   Applying the transform reduced the integral to a simple product.

   Similartransformation, mapping

   Note

   Analysis turns the verb's idea into a noun for the tool itself. A transform is an operation, frequently an integral, that carries a function from one domain into another, usually because the problem is simpler there. The same word also names the resulting function, so context has to show whether the procedure or its product is meant.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   The function that results from applying a transform operation.

   The transform of the original signal revealed two dominant frequencies.

   Mathematicians often work with the transform rather than the original function.

   Note

   Mathematicians let one word cover both the procedure and what it produces. Context usually sorts them out: you apply a transform, but you study the transform of a signal. The of-construction is the reliable sign that the result is meant rather than the operation.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To pass electricity through a transformer in order to raise or lower its voltage.

   Substations transform the current to higher voltages for long-distance transmission.

   The adapter transformed the wall voltage to power the laptop safely.

   Similarconvert

   Note

   An engineer's verb, defined by the device that performs it. Alternating current passed through a transformer comes out at a higher or lower voltage, and power is ideally conserved along the way. So engineers speak of transforming current to higher voltages for long-distance lines, and down again for use. The object is the current or the voltage, never the device.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To introduce foreign genetic material into a cell, altering its makeup.

   Biologists transform yeast cells to study how individual genes behave.

   The lab transformed the plant cells with a gene for pest resistance.

   Note

   In genetics the word has narrowed to one laboratory act: getting foreign DNA into a cell so that the cell takes it up and expresses it. Bacteria are commonly transformed with plasmids, and the usual construction is transform a cell with a gene. Unlike the change of nature, the change here is precise and deliberate: an altered genotype, not a new character.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   A boundary where two tectonic plates slide horizontally past one another, also called a transform fault.

   Geologists mapped a major transform running offshore.

   The fault is a transform, so the plates grind sideways rather than colliding.

   Note

   Geology clips the full term transform fault down to the single noun. It names a strike-slip boundary: two plates slide horizontally past each other instead of colliding or pulling apart. Such faults characteristically offset segments of mid-ocean ridges and produce shallow earthquakes. Geologists speak of mapping a transform or of a fault being a transform.

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