Transforms

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To change the essential nature or form of an entity, leading to a new character or condition, often involving a significant alteration in its function or appearance
2. To cause a major shift in the structure or form of something, which results in a different state, appearance, or function, thus altering its identity
3. To alter the shape or outward aspect of something ; to convert it into a new condition or form

Etymology: The word "transforms" is simply the third-person singular form of the verb "transform," so its history is the verb's. "Transform" came into Middle English from Old French "transformer," which in turn came from Latin "transformare," built from "trans" meaning "across" and "forma" meaning "form" or "shape." The Latin root carries the literal sense of moving something across into a different shape, and English kept that core idea of a change of form. Latin "forma" is itself the source of many English words, such as "form," "formula," and "format," so "transform" shares its ancestry with a whole family of words about shape. The prefix "trans-" does the work of pushing the meaning past the original shape into a new one, which is why the verb carries the sense of a thing becoming something else entirely rather than simply being reshaped.

Synonyms: changes, converts, metamorphoses

Antonyms: preserves, maintains