Regeneration

How to spell regeneration

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce regeneration

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does regeneration mean?

1. nounThe process of regrowing, restoring, or renewing something that was lost, damaged, or run down.

Regeneration in a sentence

• The council approved a major regeneration of the old harbour district.

• A lizard's tail is capable of slow regeneration after injury.

Where does regeneration come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin regeneratio, meaning 'a being born again' or 'a fresh creation', which was built from the verb regenerare, formed from re- 'again' and generare 'to produce, beget, or bring forth'. That generare in turn grew from genus, the Latin word for 'birth, kind, or family', a root that also gives us 'generate', 'genus', and 'genesis'. The term entered English in the late fourteenth century, at first in a strongly religious sense of spiritual rebirth or renewal of the soul. From there its meaning broadened into the biological idea of regrowing lost tissue, and later into the everyday sense of renewing or revitalising a place or institution. The spelling keeps the steady gener block intact between the re- prefix and the -ation suffix, which is the easiest way to remember it: think 'generate', then add the parts around it.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• gener (from Latin generare: to produce, beget)
• -ation (noun of action)