Dictionary entry

Palingenesis

Webster's Dictionary 1913

{ Pal′in‐gen″e‐sis (?), Pal′in‐gen″e‐sy (?), } n. [Gr. �; πάλιν again + � birth: cf. F. palingénésie. See Genesis.]

1. A new birth; a re-creation; a regeneration; a continued existence in different manner or form.

2. (Biol.) That form of evolution in which the truly ancestral characters conserved by heredity are reproduced in development; original simple descent; — distinguished from kenogenesis. Sometimes, in zoölogy, the abrupt metamorphosis of insects, crustaceans, etc.