Other forms: metamorphoses
A metamorphosis is the complete change of body an insect goes through. Undergo metamorphosis, complete metamorphosis, the metamorphosis of a caterpillar.
In the complete kind the animal dissolves most of itself inside the pupa and rebuilds, which is why a butterfly and its caterpillar look nothing alike. The plural is metamorphoses, and the word is used figuratively for any total change.
1nounmetamorphosisThe complete change of body an insect goes through.
“The class watched the caterpillar's metamorphosis into a butterfly.”
metamorphosis is a change.
Greek metamorphosis means a change of form — meta, change, plus morphe, a shape.
Ancient Greek
μεταμόρφωσις
Latin
metamorphōsis
English, today
metamorphosis
Built from
First attested in 1533, from Latin metamorphōsis, from Ancient Greek μεταμόρφωσις, from μετά (“change”) + μορφή (“form”). Analyzable as meta- + -morph + -osis
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA