transformer

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

From transform +‎ -er.

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: trans‧form‧er

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

• transform
• transformation

• metamorphosis
• shape change

• retransform

• IPA^(key): [tʁ̥ɑnsˈfɒːmɐ]

transformer c (singular definite transformeren, plural indefinite transformere)

1. (electrical engineering) transformer

• transformator

• IPA^(key): [tʁ̥ɑnsfɒˈmeɐ̯ˀ]

transformer

1. imperative of transformere

Inherited from Old French transformer, borrowed from Latin trānsfōrmāre.

• IPA^(key): /tʁɑ̃s.fɔʁ.me/

• Audio:

  (file)

transformer

1. to transform

• transformation

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

trānsfōrmer

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of trānsfōrmō

transformer

1. indefinite plural of transform