\Met`a*mor"pho*sis\, n.; pl. {Metamorphoses}. [L.,
fr. Gr. ?, fr. ? to be transformed; ? beyond, over + ? form.]
1. Change of form, or structure; transformation.
2. (Biol.) A change in the form or function of a living
   organism, by a natural process of growth or development;
   as, the metamorphosis of the yolk into the embryo, of a
   tadpole into a frog, or of a bud into a blossom.
   Especially, that form of sexual reproduction in which an
   embryo undergoes a series of marked changes of external
   form, as the chrysalis stage, pupa stage, etc., in
   insects. In these intermediate stages sexual reproduction
   is usually impossible, but they ultimately pass into final
   and sexually developed forms, from the union of which
   organisms are produced which pass through the same cycle
   of changes. See {Transformation}.
3. (Physiol.) The change of material of one kind into another
   through the agency of the living organism; metabolism.
{Vegetable metamorphosis} (Bot.), the doctrine that flowers
   are homologous with leaf buds, and that the floral organs
   are transformed leaves.