met|a|mor|pho|sis

met|a|mor|pho|sis «_MEHT uh MR fuh sihs», noun, plural -ses «-seez».

1. a change of form, structure, or substance.

2. Figurative. a noticeable or complete change in appearance, character, circumstances, or condition: »

His visage…changed as from a mask to a face.…I know not that I have ever seen in any other human face an equal metamorphosis (Charlotte Brontë).

3. a change in form, shape, or substance by or as if by witchcraft; transformation: »

Metamorphosis is a favorite game in fairy tales: princes into swans, ogres into dragons, mice into horses, and a pumpkin into a coach.

4. the changed form resulting from any such change.

5. a marked change in the form, and usually the habits, of an animal in its development after the embryonic stage. Tadpoles become frogs by metamorphosis; they lose their tails and grow legs. »

It is the process of losing the larval organs and gaining the missing adult organs which is called metamorphosis (A. Franklin Shull).

6. the structural or functional modification of a plant organ or structure during the course of its development.

7. Physiology. metabolism.

╂[< Latin metamorphōsis < Greek metamórphōsis, ultimately < metá (change) over + morph form]