Transformer – Definition & Meaning

Definition of transformer

: a neural network design that processes a whole sequence at once and uses attention to work out which parts relate to each other; it is the architecture behind almost all modern language models
- The T in GPT stands for transformer.
- Transformers now power models for text, images, audio and even protein structures.

Two meanings, one word

In everyday English

A device that changes the voltage of an electric current.

In AI

A neural network design that processes a whole sequence at once and uses attention to work out which parts relate to each other; it is the architecture behind almost all…

Origin & history

first known use2017

Introduced by Google researchers in the 2017 paper 'Attention Is All You Need'.

Test yourself

Which of these is the meaning of transformer?

Related terms

attention a technique that lets a model weigh how relevant every part of the input is to every other… large language model a very large neural network trained on huge amounts of text to predict the next token, which… GPT short for generative pre-trained transformer: a language model that is first pre-trained on… neural network a computing system made of many simple connected units ("neurons") arranged in layers, which…

Cite this entry

"Transformer." AI Dictionary, Dadgogo, https://dadgogo.com/dictionary/transformer/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2026.