What does "rebirth" mean?

Reincarnation; new birth subsequent to one's first.

Rebirth

Common synonyms include: conversion, metempsychosis, reincarnation, adoption, amendment, change of allegiance.

//ɹiːˈbɜːθ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Noun

1
Reincarnation; new birth subsequent to one's first.
"A theistic version of the above doctrine of transmigratory existence is presented best in the Bhagavadgitā which compares the rebirth of the soul in another body to changing of clothes, […]"
2
a spiritual enlightenment causing a person to lead a new life wordnet
3
Revival, reinvigoration.
"And it was the spread of modern nationalism in the aftermath of Napoleon's defeat that mainly accounted for the nineteenth-century rebirth of the “Handelian” oratorio in Germany, where it had never thrived before, […]"
4
the revival of learning and culture wordnet
5
Spiritual renewal.
"The rebirth of Baptism affirms that Christ the healer shares our life."

Show 2 more definitions

6
a second or new birth wordnet
7
after death the soul begins a new cycle of existence in another human body wordnet

Verb

1
To cause to be born again, spiritually renewed, or revived. transitive
"D’Alessandro fashioned it upon a book he wrote, the lost stories he rebirthed and cherished."
2
To be born again, spiritually renewed, or revived. intransitive
"As I rebirthed and did the LRT, I began to love and accept myself as a woman."

"The death of her husband was her rebirth."

From re- + birth.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.