transmutation

Noun

transmutation (countable and uncountable, plural transmutations)

1. (obsolete) Change, alteration.

   Synonyms:

   mutation, permutation, transfiguration, alteration, change, deviation, modification, transformation, transition, variation

2. The conversion of one thing into something else; transformation.
   • Up I rose and forth I fared: / Took my plunge within the bath-pool, pacified the watch-dog scared, / Saw proceed the transmutation—Jura's black to one gold glow, […]1877 September 14, Robert Browning, “La Saisiaz”, in La Saisiaz: The Two Poets of Croisic, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], published 1878, →OCLC, pages 15–16

   Synonyms:

   development, metamorphosis, transfiguration, conversion, transfigurement, transformation, transmogrification, sea change

   1. The supposed transformation of one element into another, especially of a base metal into gold.
      • The transmutation of metals was secondary to the main aim, which was the spiritual transformation of the adept.1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 261
   2. (nuclear physics) The actual transformation of one element into another by a nuclear reaction.
      • Years later, scientists learned that the sun’s light—visible and invisible—is merely the by-product of a process alchemists had vainly tried to reproduce for centuries—the transmutation of one element into another. That nature accomplishes this before our very eyes, and that it is what creates the...2017, Bob Berman, Zapped: From Infrared to X-rays, the Curious History of Invisible Light, Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 73