Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The manner in which an organism or any of its parts changes form or undergoes development.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Morphogenesis; the order or mode of formation of any organ or organism.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Biol.) The order or mode of development of an organ or part.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek morphōsis, process of forming, from morphoun, to form, from morphē, form.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin morphosis, from Ancient Greek μόρφωσις ("shaping").

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Examples

  • Nobody ever wrote a more auto­biographical story than "The Meta­morphosis".

    28 Views to a Job Walter Jon Williams 2010

  • But before you can move into a place like the Edge and experience the sublime paradox of "hardcore luxury," you must undergo a "douche-morphosis" and attain the state known as "douche-gnosis."

    Hardcore Luxury: It Ain't Easy Being Douchey BikeSnobNYC 2010

  • Fidler, who also was part of an early videotext experiment in the '80s called Viewtron, said that the newspaper business was on the verge of a major revolution, what he called a "Media-morphosis."

    Bryan Monroe: Apple's New Tablet? Been There, Done That 2010

  • The prefix meta means “with” and morphosis means “to change.”

    Living on the Edge Chip Ingram 2009

  • The Journal of the Medical Library Association - Volume 95 Number 3, July 2007 - is now available online meta | morphosis: a University of Kentucky film-to-digital institute meta | morphosis: a University of Kentucky film-to-digital institute - September 12-13 2007

    July 2007 2007

  • The Journal of the Medical Library Association - J ... meta | morphosis: a University of Kentucky film-to ...

    July 2007 2007

  • "You can save a bit of water and use it to water your lawn," he says.www. morphosis.net Write to us at wsje. weekend@wsj.com

    Domestic Sustainability: 2008

  • Paedo-morphosis is the retention into adulthood of childhood characteristics.

    The God Delusion Dawkins, Richard, 1941- 2006

  • We must convert, by one sudden meta-morphosis, the whole body of our agricultural and manufacturing population into women!

    The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 19, No. 545, May 5, 1832 Various

  • The particles of which the substance is composed have an active molecular motion, but the morphosis of the production has not yet been properly observed.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 286, June 25, 1881 Various

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