transformation

See also: Transformation

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English transformacioun, from Middle French, from Ecclesiastical Latin trānsfōrmātiō. Morphologically transform +‎ -ation.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌtɹæns.fə(ɹ)ˈmeɪ.ʃən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌtɹæns.fɔɹˈmeɪ.ʃən/, /ˌtɹæns.fɚˈmeɪ.ʃən/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Hyphenation: trans‧for‧ma‧tion
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

transformation (countable and uncountable, plural transformations)

1. The act of transforming or the state of being transformed.

   Synonyms: metamorphosis, transfiguration, transmogrification, transmutation; see also Thesaurus:conversion

   undergo a radical transformation

   • 2024 August 6, Ricardo Treviño, “Self-Healing Concrete Help Buildings Seal Themselves”, in TecScience‎^[1], archived from the original on 19 January 2025:

     “This material has a specific hardness and is chemically very stable. It forms naturally from calcium alone, but bacteria accelerate the transformation into calcium carbonate,” explains Alejandro Montesinos, head of the Decarbonization, Climate Change, and Circular Economy Research Group at Tec de Monterrey and a member of the Institute of Advanced Materials and Sustainable Manufacturing.

   • 2025 October 1, Richard Evans, “The value of the railway effect”, in RAIL, number 1045, page 58:

     Over the past two centuries, the railway has become a force of economic and social transformation connecting towns and cities, carrying ideas and ambitions. One place to experience this change was Swindon. With the arrival of Brunel's Great Western Railway, Swindon began a remarkable transformation as what had been a modest market town quickly became a centre of industrial activity.

2. A marked change in appearance or character, especially one for the better.
3. (mathematics) The replacement of the variables in an algebraic expression by their values in terms of another set of variables; a mapping of one space onto another or onto itself; a function that changes the position or direction of the axes of a coordinate system.
4. (linguistics) A rule that systematically converts one syntactic form into another; a sentence derived by such a rule.
5. (genetics) The alteration of a bacterial cell caused by the transfer of DNA from another, especially if pathogenic.
6. (politics, South Africa) The transition from the apartheid era to a multiracial democracy in South Africa.
7. (obsolete) A woman's wig.

Derived terms

• affine transformation
• agro-transformation
• autotransformation
• backtransformation
• biotransformation
• Bogoliubov transformation
• Bogoliubov-Valatin transformation
• Cartesian natural transformation
• cotransformation
• cryotransformation
• detransformation
• digital transformation
• electrotransformation
• Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation
• heat of transformation
• Helmert transformation
• Hjelmslev transformation
• Holstein-Primakoff transformation
• Hosaka-Cohen transformation
• intertransformation
• Landen's transformation
• Legendre transformation
• linear transformation
• Lorentz transformation
• mansformation
• mistransformation
• Möbius transformation
• natural transformation
• neurotransformation
• phototransformation
• phytotransformation
• retransformation
• supertransformation
• transduction
• transformational
• transformationism
• transformationist
• transformation matrix
• Tschirnhausen transformation
• Tschirnhaus transformation
• Tseytin transformation

Related terms

• transform

Translations

act of transforming

• Afrikaans: transformasie, vervorming, omvorming
• Arabic: تَحَوُّل (ar) m (taḥawwul)
• Asturian: tresformación f
• Belarusian: пераўтварэ́нне n (pjerawtvarénnje), трансфарма́цыя f (transfarmácyja), ператварэ́нне n (pjeratvarénnje)
• Bulgarian: преобразу́ване (bg) n (preobrazúvane), трансформа́ция (bg) f (transformácija)
• Catalan: transformació (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 轉型 / 转型 (zh) (zhuǎnxíng), 轉變 / 转变 (zh) (zhuǎnbiàn)

• Czech: proměna (cs) f
• Dutch: transformatie (nl) f, omvorming (nl) f
• Esperanto: transformado, ŝanĝo
• Estonian: teisendus
• Finnish: muutos (fi)
• French: transformation (fr) f
• Frisian:

  West Frisian: transformaasje c, omfoarming

• Galician: transformación (gl) f
• Georgian: გარდაქმნა (gardakmna), ტრანსფორმაცია (ṭranspormacia)
• German: Transformation (de) f, Verwandlung (de) f, Umformung (de) f
• Greek: μετασχηματισμός (el) m (metaschimatismós)
• Hungarian: átalakítás (hu), alakítás (hu)
• Indonesian: transformasi (id)
• Japanese: 変形 (ja) (へんけい, henkei), 変換 (ja) (へんかん, henkan)
• Korean: 변형 (ko) (byeonhyeong), 변환 (ko) (byeonhwan)
• Latin: mūtātiō (la) f
• Māori: panonitanga
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: omdanning m or f

  Nynorsk: omdanning f

• Persian: تحول (fa) (tahavvol)
• Polish: przekształcenie (pl) n, przemiana (pl) f, transformacja (pl) f
• Portuguese: transformação (pt) f
• Romanian: transformare (ro) f
• Russian: преобразова́ние (ru) n (preobrazovánije), трансформа́ция (ru) f (transformácija)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: преображе́ње n

  Latin: preobražénje (sh) n

• Slovak: premena f
• Spanish: transformación (es) f
• Swedish: omvandling (sv) c, transformation (sv) c, transformering (sv) c
• Tagalog: pagsasaanyo, pagtatransporma
• Tajik: таҳаввул (tahavvul)
• Turkish: ^{(please verify)} dönüşüm (tr)
• Ukrainian: перетво́рення (uk) n (peretvórennja), трансформа́ція f (transformácija)

state of being transformed

• Bulgarian: трансформа́ция (bg) f (transformácija)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 轉型 / 转型 (zh) (zhuǎnxíng), 轉變 / 转变 (zh) (zhuǎnbiàn)

• Finnish: muutostila
• Hungarian: átalakulás (hu), alakulás (hu)
• Japanese: 変形 (ja) (へんけい, henkei), 変換 (ja) (へんかん, henkan)
• Māori: panonitanga
• Polish: transformacja (pl) f
• Russian: преобразова́ние (ru) n (preobrazovánije), трансформа́ция (ru) f (transformácija)

marked change in appearance or character

• Bulgarian: преобразване n (preobrazvane)
• Esperanto: aliformiĝo, aliiĝo, transformiĝo
• Finnish: muutos (fi)
• Māori: panonitanga
• Polish: przemiana (pl) f, przeobrażenie (pl) n
• Romanian: transformare (ro) f
• Russian: преображе́ние (ru) n (preobražénije)

mathematical term

• Bulgarian: трансформа́ция (bg) f (transformácija)
• Catalan: transformació (ca) f
• Finnish: muunnos (fi)
• French: transformation (fr) f
• Galician: transformación (gl) f
• Greek: μετασχηματισμός (el) m (metaschimatismós)
• Hindi: रूपांतरण (hi) (rūpāntraṇ)
• Māori: panonitanga
• Polish: przekształcenie (pl) n, transformacja (pl) f
• Romanian: transformare (ro) f, transformări f pl
• Russian: преобразова́ние (ru) n (preobrazovánije)

linguistics: rule that systematically converts one syntactic form into another

• Catalan: transformació (ca) f
• Finnish: muunnos (fi)
• Galician: transformación (gl) f
• Greek: μετασχηματισμός (el) m (metaschimatismós)
• Hungarian: transzformáció (hu)
• Indonesian: transformasi (id)
• Polish: transformacja (pl) f
• Russian: трансформа́ция (ru) f (transformácija)

genetics: alteration of a bacterial cell caused by the transfer of DNA

• Finnish: muutos (fi)
• Galician: transformación (gl) f
• Romanian: mutație (ro) f, mutare (ro) f
• Russian: трансформа́ция (ru) f (transformácija)
• Turkish: başkalaşım (tr)

South Africa: ideologically driven government policy

• Russian: перестро́йка (ru) f (perestrójka)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 变换 (zh) (biànhuàn)

• Czech: ^{(please verify)} transformace (cs) f
• Danish: ^{(please verify)} transformation
• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} transformatie (nl) f, ^{(please verify)} omvorming (nl) f, ^{(please verify)} vervorming (nl) f
• Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} ŝanĝo, ^{(please verify)} aliformigo, ^{(please verify)} aliformiĝo
• French: ^{(please verify)} transformation (fr) f
• German: ^{(please verify)} Transformation (de) f
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} trasformazione (it) f
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 変態 (ja) (へんたい, hentai)
• Kabuverdianu:

  Santiago/Badiu: ^{(please verify)} transformason

• Korean: ^{(please verify)} 변태(變態) (ko) (byeontae)
• Latin: ^{(please verify)} trānsfōrmātiō m
• Slovak: ^{(please verify)} transformácia f
• Slovene: ^{(please verify)} transformacija f
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} transformation (sv) f

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin trānsfōrmātiōnem, from Latin trānsfōrmō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.ma.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Noun

transformation f (plural transformations)

1. transformation
2. (rugby) conversion

Derived terms

• transformation de Fourier

Related terms

• transformer (verb)

Further reading

• “transformation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Swedish

Noun

transformation c

1. transformation

Declension

Declension of transformation

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	transformation	transformations
	definite	transformationen	transformationens
plural	indefinite	transformationer	transformationers
	definite	transformationerna	transformationernas

Related terms

• transform
• transformator
• transformera

References

• “transformation”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “transformation”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)