transforming

Pluraltransformings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of transform.

   The company is transforming its supply chain to cut delivery times.

   Transforming raw data into clear insight takes patience and skill.

   Note

   The -ing form does more than one job. With be it builds the progressive (the city is transforming), and as a gerund it heads a noun phrase (transforming data takes patience). The verb behind it works both ways: transitive when something else is changed, intransitive when the subject itself changes. So is transforming may or may not take an object. The same spelling also serves as the countable noun.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act or process of changing something completely in form, appearance, or nature.

   The transforming of the manuscript into a finished novel demanded years of effort.

   Critics praised the gradual transforming of the company's stagnant culture.

   Similarconversion, transformation, reshaping, remaking

   Note

   As a noun it can be counted, and the plural is where it shows its character. Herman Melville's Mardi (1849) has nature working "her magic transformings," and A. J. Penny's Studies in Jacob Bohme (2016) pairs "monsterings and transformings of souls." Both writers use it for changes worked by nature or spirit, in a heightened register. Its plain everyday equivalent is transformation.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2