Definition of "metamorphosis" []

• A transformation, as by magic or sorcery. (noun)
• A marked change in appearance, character, condition, or function. (noun)
• Biology A change in the form and often habits of an animal during normal development after the embryonic stage. Metamorphosis includes, in insects, the transformation of a maggot into an adult fly and a caterpillar into a butterfly and, in amphibians, the changing of a tadpole into a frog. (noun)
• Pathology A usually degenerative change in the structure of a particular body tissue. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The word larva referring to the newly hatched form of insects before they undergo metamorphosis comes from the Latin word lārva, meaning “evil spirit, demon, devil.”"
• "The term metamorphosis, then, really implies an alteration in the organizing force, taking effect at a very early period of the life of the flower, at or before the period when the primitive aggregation of cells, of which it is at that time composed, becomes separated or"
• "The term metamorphosis includes both of these processes; and in the normal condition of the system presupposes a perfect equilibrium between them."