transmutation

Late 14th century, from Old French transmutacion (“transformation, metamorphosis”), from Late Latin transmutationem, from Latin transmutare (“to change”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tɹanzmjuːˈteɪʃn̩/

transmutation (countable and uncountable, plural transmutations)

1. (obsolete) Change, alteration.
2. The conversion of one thing into something else; transformation.
   1. (alchemy) The supposed transformation of one element into another, especially of a base metal into gold.
      • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 261:

        The transmutation of metals was secondary to the main aim, which was the spiritual transformation of the adept.

   2. (nuclear physics) The actual transformation of one element into another by a nuclear reaction.
      • 2017, Bob Berman, Zapped: From Infrared to X-rays, the Curious History of Invisible Light, Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 73:

        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 solar heat and light that supports all life, was suspected by no one. The revelation came as a complete surprise.

From Latin trānsmūtātiōnem.

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transmutation f (plural transmutations)

1. transmutation (all senses)

• transmuer, transmuter

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