transformer

Meanings

1. Something that transforms, changing its own or another thing's shape.
2. 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.
3. A neural network architecture composed of layers of attention which takes sequences of tokens (representing text, images, audio, or other modalities) as input.
4. Alternative letter-case form of Transformer.

1. A toy in the Transformers toyline which has mechanical parts that allow it to be altered in appearance from its original form as a humanoid robot action figure to another form, usually a vehicle, depending on the toy.
2. In the Transformers franchise, any of the alien humanoid robots that can mechanically alter their appearance, or "transform", into a vehicle, creature, or (rarely) a tool.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *terh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-t Proto-Indo-European *térh₂t Proto-Indo-European *-ónts Proto-Indo-European *tr̥h₂ónts Proto-Indo-European *tr̥h₂n̥ts Proto-Italic *trāns Proto-Italic *trāns- Latin trāns- Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ)der.? Latin fōrma Latin fōrmōder. Latin transformo Old French transformer Middle French transfourmerbor. Middle English transformen English transformder. Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āsjos Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English transformer From transform + -er.