metamorphosis
NounOpen English WordNet
Noun (3)metamorphoses
- the marked and rapid transformation of a larva into an adult that occurs in some animalsSynonyms: metabolismType of organic process, biological processKinds holometabolism, heterometabolism, hemimetamorphosis
- a striking change in appearance or character or circumstances“the metamorphosis of the old house into something new and exciting”Synonyms: transfigurationType of revision, alteration
- a complete change of physical form or substance especially as by magic or witchcraftType of transformation, translation
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: L., fr. Gr. …, fr. … to be transformed; μετά beyond, over + μορφή form.
1. Change of form, or structure; transformation.
2. Biology A change in the form or function of a living organism, by a natural process of growth or development; as, the metamorphosis of the yolk into the embryo, of a tadpole into a frog, or of a bud into a blossom. Especially, that form of sexual reproduction in which an embryo undergoes a series of marked changes of external form, as the chrysalis stage, pupa stage, etc., in insects. In these intermediate stages sexual reproduction is usually impossible, but they ultimately pass into final and sexually developed forms, from the union of which organisms are produced which pass through the same cycle of changes. See Transformation.
3. Physiology The change of material of one kind into another through the agency of the living organism; metabolism.
Vegetable metamorphosis Botany, the doctrine that flowers are homologous with leaf buds, and that the floral organs are transformed leaves.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54