transformer

See also: Transformer

English

Alternative forms

• tformer, t-former (shortening)
• transformator (archaic)

Etymology

From transform +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /tɹænsˈfɔɹmɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /tɹænsˈfɔːmə/, /tɹɑːnsˈfɔːmə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: trans‧form‧er

Noun

transformer (plural transformers)

1. Something that transforms, changing its own or another thing's shape.
3. (electrical engineering) A static device that transfers electric energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling; primarily used to transfer energy between different voltage levels, which allows the most appropriate voltages for power generation, transmission and distribution to be chosen separately.
   • 2018 December 28, Michael Gold, “How an Explosion (Not Aliens) Turned New York’s Night Sky an Electric Blue”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     While initial reports Thursday traced the glow to a transformer explosion or a fire, Mr. McGee said there was no fire, and there were no transformers involved.

4. (machine learning) A neural network architecture composed of layers of attention which takes sequences of tokens (representing text, images, audio, or other modalities) as input.
   • 2021, Lei Chen, Deep Learning and Practice with MindSpore, Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 116:

     Transformer is a deep machine learning model based on the encoder–decoder network architecture and is used primarily in the field of NLP.

   • 2023 January 31, Casey Newton, “Instagram’s co-founders are back with Artifact, a kind of TikTok for text”, in The Verge‎^[2]:

     The transformer helped machine-learning systems improve at a much faster pace, leading directly to last year’s release of ChatGPT and the attendant boom in interest around AI. (Transformers are the “T” in ChatGPT.)

5. Alternative letter-case form of Transformer

Derived terms

• autotransformer
• distribution transformer
• isolation transformer
• multiple transformer
• Transformer
• transformerless
• transformerlike

 

Related terms

• transform
• transformation

Translations

something that transforms

• Bulgarian: преобразова́тел (bg) m (preobrazovátel)
• Finnish: muuttaja (fi) (subject), muuttuja (fi) (object)
• Greek: μετασχηματιστής (el) m (metaschimatistís)
• Ido: transformilo (io)
• Russian: преобразова́тель (ru) m (preobrazovátelʹ)
• Spanish: transformador (es), transformadora (es)
• Swahili: kigeuzi ?

device that changes the characteristics of AC electricity

• Albanian: transformator (sq) m
• Arabic: مُحَوِّل m (muḥawwil)
• Armenian: տրանսֆորմատոր (hy) (transformator), փոխակերպիչ (hy) (pʻoxakerpičʻ)
• Azerbaijani: transformator
• Basque: transformadore (eu)
• Belarusian: трансфарма́тар m (transfarmátar)
• Bengali: ট্রান্সফরমার (ṭranśophromar)
• Bulgarian: трансформа́тор m (transformátor)
• Burmese: လျှပ်တာပြောင်း (hlyapta-praung:), ထရန်စဖော်မာ (hta.ranca.hpauma)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 變壓器 / 变压器 (zh) (biànyāqì)

• Czech: transformátor (cs) m
• Danish: transformer (da) c, transformator c
• Dutch: transformator (nl) m
• Estonian: transformaator
• Finnish: muuntaja (fi)
• French: transformateur (fr) m
• Georgian: ტრანსფორმატორი (ṭranspormaṭori), გარდამქმნელი (gardamkmneli)
• German: Transformator (de) m
• Greek: μετασχηματιστής (el) m (metaschimatistís)
• Gujarati: ફેરવણું n (pheravṇũ)
• Hebrew: שַׁנַּאי (he) m (shanái), טְרַנְסְפוֹרְמָטוֹר (he) m (transformatór)
• Hindi: ट्रान्सफ़ॉर्मर (ṭrānsafŏrmar), परिणामित्र (pariṇāmitra)
• Hungarian: transzformátor (hu)
• Ido: transformatoro (io)
• Indonesian: transformator (id)
• Italian: trasformatore (it) m
• Japanese: 変圧器 (ja) (へんあつき, hen'atsuki), 変流器 (へんりゅうき, henryūki), トランス (ja) (toransu)
• Kazakh: трансформатор (transformator)
• Khmer: ត្រង់ស្វមម៉ាទ័រ (trɑngsvɑɑmmaatɔə)
• Korean: 변압기(變壓器) (ko) (byeonapgi), 트랜스 (teuraenseu)
• Kyrgyz: трансформатор (ky) (transformator)
• Lao: ໝໍ້ແບ່ງໄຟ (lo) (mǭ bǣng fai)
• Latvian: transformators m
• Lithuanian: transformatorius m
• Macedonian: трансформа́тор m (transformátor)
• Malay: pengubah
• Maori: whitihiko
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: трансформатор (transformator)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: transformator m, trafo m, omformer m

  Nynorsk: transformator m, trafo m, omformar m

• Persian: ترانسفورماتور (fa) (terânsformâtor)
• Polish: transformator (pl) m
• Portuguese: transformador (pt) m
• Romanian: transformator (ro) n
• Russian: трансформа́тор (ru) m (transformátor)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: трансфо̀рма̄тор m

  Roman: transfòrmātor m

• Slovak: transformátor m
• Slovene: transformator (sl) m
• Spanish: transformador (es) m, transfórmer m (Bolivia)
• Swahili: transfoma (sw) class 9/10
• Swedish: transformator (sv) c
• Tagalog: palitab
• Tajik: трансформатор (transformator)
• Tatar: трансформатор (transformator)
• Thai: หม้อแปลงไฟ (mɔ̂ɔ-bplɛɛng-fai), หม้อแปลงไฟฟ้า (mɔ̂ɔ-bplɛɛng-fai-fáa)
• Turkish: trafo (tr), transformatör (tr)
• Turkmen: transformator
• Ukrainian: трансформа́тор m (transformátor)
• Urdu: ٹرانْسْفارْمَر (ṭrānsfārmar)
• Uyghur: ترانسفورماتور (transformator)
• Uzbek: transformator (uz)
• Vietnamese: máy biến thế, máy biến áp, biến áp (vi) (abbreviation)

neural network architecture

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: muuntaja (fi), transformer (fi)

See also

• metamorphosis
• shape change

Anagrams

• retransform

Danish

Pronunciation 1

• IPA^(key): [tʁ̥ɑnsˈfɒːmɐ]

Noun

transformer c (singular definite transformeren, plural indefinite transformere)

1. (electrical engineering) transformer

Declension

Declension of transformer

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	transformer	transformeren	transformere	transformerne
genitive	transformers	transformerens	transformeres	transformernes

Synonyms

• transformator

Pronunciation 2

• IPA^(key): [tʁ̥ɑnsfɒˈmeɐ̯ˀ]

Verb

transformer

1. imperative of transformere

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French transformer, borrowed from Latin trānsfōrmāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.me/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

transformer

1. to transform

Conjugation

Conjugation of transformer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	transformer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	transformant /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		transformé /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.me/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	transforme /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁm/	transformes /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁm/	transforme /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁm/	transformons /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mɔ̃/	transformez /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.me/	transforment /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁm/
	imperfect	transformais /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mɛ/	transformais /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mɛ/	transformait /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mɛ/	transformions /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mjɔ̃/	transformiez /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mje/	transformaient /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mɛ/
	past historic2	transformai /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.me/	transformas /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.ma/	transforma /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.ma/	transformâmes /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mam/	transformâtes /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mat/	transformèrent /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mɛʁ/
	future	transformerai /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mə.ʁe/	transformeras /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mə.ʁa/	transformera /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mə.ʁa/	transformerons /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mə.ʁɔ̃/	transformerez /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mə.ʁe/	transformeront /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	transformerais /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mə.ʁɛ/	transformerais /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mə.ʁɛ/	transformerait /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mə.ʁɛ/	transformerions /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mə.ʁjɔ̃/	transformeriez /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mə.ʁje/	transformeraient /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mə.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	transforme /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁm/	transformes /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁm/	transforme /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁm/	transformions /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mjɔ̃/	transformiez /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mje/	transforment /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁm/
	imperfect2	transformasse /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mas/	transformasses /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mas/	transformât /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.ma/	transformassions /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.ma.sjɔ̃/	transformassiez /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.ma.sje/	transformassent /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	transforme /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁm/	—	transformons /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.mɔ̃/	transformez /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.me/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Related terms

• transformation

Further reading

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

Latin

Verb

trānsfōrmer

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of trānsfōrmō

Swedish

Noun

transformer

1. indefinite plural of transform