METAMORPHOSIS • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Metamorphosis

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/mˌɛtəmˈɔrfəsəs/ Listen

noun

Metamorphosis n. (pl. metamorphoses)

Change of form, or structure; transformation.

(Biol.) 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.

(Physiol.) The change of material of one kind into another through the agency of the living organism; metabolism.

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

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Etymology of 'Metamorphosis'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Metamorphosis" Quotes from Famous Books

... always seems to be undergoing a certain kind of metamorphosis; and with its sand-hills and generally unfinished condition, reminds the traveller of some remote part of the world, such as Panama, for instance. Some day it may possibly be able to digest the passenger traffic from England to the continent, but at present much time is lost there ...

— Fair Italy, the Riviera and Monte Carlo • W. Cope Devereux

... with the great National attribute of self-protection, and the re-establishment of peace, and order, and security, the revival of business and trade, and the restoration of the Southern States on the basis of loyalty and equal justice to all, will be the happy results of this astonishing metamorphosis, provided the party which has inaugurated this policy remains in power to ...

— The Life, Public Services and Select Speeches of Rutherford B. Hayes • James Quay Howard

... began with a T, and Kalo is usually Taro. It is a very musical language. Each syllable and word ends with a vowel, and there are none of our rasping and sibilant consonants. In their soft phraseology our hard rough surnames undergo a metamorphosis, as Fisk into Filikina, Wilson into Wilikina. Each vowel is distinctly pronounced, and usually with the Italian sound. The volcano is pronounced as if spelt Keel-ah-wee-ah, and Kauai as if Kah-wye-ee. The name Owhyhee for ...

— The Hawaiian Archipelago • Isabella L. Bird

... faith, while I only carry those of nature." He speaks of "the lies of Josephus," and makes merry over "the rude and shapeless block" which the guide assured him was the statue of Lot's wife, explaining the want of human form in the salt pillar by telling him that this complete metamorphosis was part of ...

— History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom • Andrew Dickson White

... mycelium, and produce a sporular mass within the active pupa, when many are probably destroyed; but should some be only affected so far as not to destroy the organs immediately essential to life, they might undergo their metamorphosis into the imago, in which case they would be affected in ...

— Fungi: Their Nature and Uses • Mordecai Cubitt Cooke

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