metamorphosis

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: Met=amor=phosis

CIDE DICTIONARY

metamorphosis, n. [L., fr. Gr. , fr. to be transformed; meta` beyond, over + morfh` form.].

•  Change of form, or structure; transformation.  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  The change of material of one kind into another through the agency of the living organism; metabolism.  [1913 Webster]

Vegetable metamorphosis (Bot.), the doctrine that flowers are homologous with leaf buds, and that the floral organs are transformed leaves.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

metamorphosis, n. (pl. metamorphoses)
1 a change of form (by natural or supernatural means).
2 a changed form.
3 a change of character, conditions, etc.
4 Zool. the transformation between an immature form and an adult form, e.g. from a pupa to an insect, or from a tadpole to a frog.

Etymology

L f. Gk metamorphosis f. metamorphoo transform (as META-, morphoo f. morphe form)

THESAURUS

metamorphosis

avatar, catabolism, catalysis, consubstantiation, displacement, heterotopia, metabolism, metagenesis, metamorphism, metastasis, metathesis, metempsychosis, mutant, mutated form, mutation, permutation, reincarnation, sport, transanimation, transfiguration, transfigurement, transformation, transformism, translation, translocation, transmigration, transmogrification, transmutation, transposition, transubstantiation

ROGET THESAURUS

metamorphosis

Change

N change, alteration, mutation, permutation, variation, modification, modulation, inflexion, mood, qualification, innovation, metastasis, deviation, turn, evolution, revolution, diversion, break, transformation, transfiguration, metamorphosis, transmutation, deoxidization, transubstantiation, mutagenesis transanimation, transmigration, metempsychosis, avatar, alterative, conversion, revolution &c (sudden or radical change), inversion, displacement, transference, changeableness, tergiversation, changed, newfangled, changeable, transitional, modifiable, alterative, mutatis mutandis, Int, quantum mutatus!, a change came o'er the spirit of my dream, nous avons change tout cela, tempora mutantur nos et mutamur in illis, non sum qualis eram, casaque tourner, corpora lente augescent cito extinguuntur, in statu quo ante bellum, still ending and beginning still, vox audita perit littera scripta manet.