Definition of "transmute"
verb
third-person singular simple present transmutes, present participle transmuting, simple past and past participle transmuted
(transitive, intransitive) To change, transform or convert one thing to another, or from one state or form to another.
Quotations
There is silence, then the sound of weeping, which escalates to heart-rending, gasping sobs. A man, the source of the lamentation, appears and as he walks across the stage, his cries transmute into song, and the slow snare drum rat-a-tat-tat of Ravel’s composition begins.
2023 April 14, Roslyn Sulcas, “Review: Grief and Mourning, Delivered With Ecstatic Vitality”, in The New York Times