Palingenesis; Palingenesy

Part of speech: noun (n.)

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

2. 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.