Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A rebirth or revival.
  • noun The humanistic revival of classical art, architecture, literature, and learning that originated in Italy in the 14th century and later spread throughout Europe.
  • noun The period of this revival, roughly the 14th through the 16th century, marking the transition from medieval to modern times.
  • noun A revival of intellectual or artistic achievement and vigor.
  • noun The period of such a revival.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of the Renaissance or its artistic and intellectual works and styles.
  • adjective Of or being the style of architecture and decoration, based on classical models, that originated in Italy in the 14th century and continued throughout Europe up to the end of the 16th century.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A rebirth or revival.
  • noun historic The transition period between medieval and modern times, the Renaissance.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French, from renaistre, to be born again, from Vulgar Latin *renāscere, from Latin renāscī : re-, re- + nāscī, to be born; see genə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French renaissance.

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Examples

  • ‡ The term renaissance is often used to describe any revival or rediscovery.

    Renaissance 2002

  • I don't think the term renaissance is overstating it.

    chicagotribune.com - News 2011

  • I don't think the term renaissance is overstating it.

    chicagotribune.com - News 2011

  • And then come the Indians, the natives people, and the music that we still today are singing in the baroque music at the end of the renaissance is a mix of this confluence of old Spain, African rhythmical and songs, and Indian influences - all this mixed together.

    A Common Thread: Music Of Spain And Mexico 2010

  • And then come the Indians, the natives people, and the music that we still today are singing in the baroque music at the end of the renaissance is a mix of this confluence of old Spain, African rhythmical and songs, and Indian influences - all this mixed together.

    A Common Thread: Music Of Spain And Mexico 2010

  • Hence the word "renaissance" has come to be applied to Asia's reemergence today.

    George Yeo: Nalanda and the Asian Renaissance George Yeo 2011

  • And then come the Indians, the natives people, and the music that we still today are singing in the baroque music at the end of the renaissance is a mix of this confluence of old Spain, African rhythmical and songs, and Indian influences - all this mixed together.

    A Common Thread: Music Of Spain And Mexico 2010

  • And then come the Indians, the natives people, and the music that we still today are singing in the baroque music at the end of the renaissance is a mix of this confluence of old Spain, African rhythmical and songs, and Indian influences - all this mixed together.

    A Common Thread: Music Of Spain And Mexico 2010

  • You know, just -- my father was what they call a renaissance man, you know, he did everything.

    CNN Transcript Jun 4, 2001 2001

  • By the eighties, the music was becoming more popular among Mexican Americans, and "renaissance" is the word that best describes its appeal in the nineties.

    A new generation embraces centuries-old music of Mexico 1997

  • That new age wasn’t called rinascita until Vasari’s Lives of the Artists in 1550 (more than a century after Bruni) and renaissance proper was coined by Jules Michelet in 1855, but Bruni’s idea of three periods, and that this new one could be a golden age, caught on quickly because of its potential for… (da da da daaa!) …legitimacy! 

    Black Death, COVID, and Why We Keep Telling the Myth of a Renaissance Golden Age and Bad Middle Ages – Ex Urbe exurbe 2023

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