The premodern and early modern study of physical changes, particularly in Europe, Arabia, and China and chiefly in pursuit of an elixir of immortality, a universal panacea, and/or a philosopher's stone able to transmute base metals into gold, eventually developing into chemistry.
Any elaborate transformation process or algorithm.
The causing of any sort of mysterious sudden transmutation.
Sleight of hand; "magic" trickery.
A show of skill or deceitful ability.