phoenix

/ˈfinɪks/

/ˈfinɪks/

Other forms: phoenixes

If you want to see a phoenix, simply locate a unicorn or a centaur, and then you'll be in the right neighborhood. A phoenix is a mythical bird known for rising from its ashes. Don't try that at home!

Accordingly to ancient legend, the phoenix is a bird that cyclically burns to death and is reborn from its own ashes. For this reason, the phoenix often serves as a symbol of renewal and rebirth. The name of Phoenix, Arizona is a direct reference to this idea; Phoenix was built upon the ruins of a civilization that had collapsed long before, apparently due to drought.

Definitions of phoenix

1. noun

   a legendary Arabian bird said to periodically burn itself to death and emerge from the ashes as a new phoenix; according to most versions only one phoenix lived at a time and it renewed itself every 500 years
   type of:

   mythical being

   an imaginary being of myth or fable
2. noun

   a large monocotyledonous genus of pinnate-leaved palms found in Asia and Africa
   synonyms: genus Phoenix

   type of:

   liliopsid genus, monocot genus

   genus of flowering plants having a single cotyledon (embryonic leaf) in the seed