To “transmute” (trans-MYOOT) – from the Latin for “to change utterly” – is to transform from one nature, form, substance, or state into another.
Example (as used by Lena Lencek and Gideon Bosker in The Beach: The History of Paradise on Earth): “Sand that once was rock becomes rock once again as it slowly sediments and compresses into layers of sandstone, which, in turn, transmute into sand.”
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