transformer

UK/tɹænsˈfɔːmə/US/tɹænsˈfoɹməɹ/

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,469 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: transformers

A transformer is a device that changes the voltage of a supply. A step-down transformer, the transformer hummed, a substation transformer.

It works only on alternating current, which is why the world settled on that rather than direct current: raising the voltage for transmission and dropping it again at the far end is what makes a national grid possible at all.

Definitions of transformer

1nountransformerA device that changes the voltage of a supply.B2+
“A transformer outside the village reduces the high voltage from the power lines.”

transformer is a device.

Where it comes from

Middle English
transformen
English
transform
English, today
transformer

Built from

trans · Latin — across
forma · Latin — form

From transform + -er. transform comes from Middle English transformen. From Middle English transformen, from Old French transformer, from Latin transformo, from trans (“across”) + forma (“form”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Word Building

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transformer in the wild

Transformers are used to change AC voltage levels, such transformers being termed step-up or step-down type to increase or decrease voltage level, respectively.
Transformer
Sometimes, in the case of transformer baluns, they use magnetic coupling but need not do so.
Balun
Instrument transformers isolate measurement or protection circuits from the high voltage of the primary system.
Current transformer
A current transformer presents a negligible load to the primary circuit.
Current transformer

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the forma family

form inform

transformer — used about once every 6,207 pages · #10,469 · point at the bar for the others

transformation

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