different between incarnation vs reincarnation

English

Etymology

From Middle English incarnacion, borrowed from Old French incarnacion, from Medieval Latin, Ecclesiastical Latin incarnatio, from Late Latin incarnari (“to be made flesh”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???k??(?)?ne???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

incarnation (countable and uncountable, plural incarnations)

1. An incarnate being or form.
   • 1815, Francis Jeffrey, Wordsworth's White Doe (review)

     She is a new incarnation of some of the illustrious dead.

   • 1922, Baroness Orczy, The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel

     Robespierre, the very incarnation of lustful and deadly Vengeance, stands silently by..
2. A living being embodying a deity or spirit.
3. An assumption of human form or nature.
4. A person or thing regarded as embodying or exhibiting some quality, idea, or the like.

5. The act of incarnating.
6. The state of being incarnated.
7. (obsolete) A rosy or red colour; flesh colour; carnation.
8. (medicine, obsolete) The process of healing wounds and filling the part with new flesh; granulation.

Related terms

• carnal
• incarnate
• reincarnate
• reincarnation

Translations

Further reading

• incarnation in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• incarnation in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Etymology

From Middle French incarnation, from Old French incarnacion, borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin incarn?ti?, incarn?ti?nem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.ka?.na.sj??/

Noun

incarnation f (plural incarnations)

1. embodiment (entity typifying an abstraction)

Related terms

• incarner

Further reading

• “incarnation” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French incarnacion, borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin incarn?ti?, incarn?ti?nem.

Noun

incarnation f (plural incarnations)

1. (Christianity) Incarnation. Specifically, the incarnation of God in the form of Jesus Christ.

Descendants

• French: incarnation

References

• incarnation on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)

English

Etymology

From reincarnate +? -ion

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

reincarnation (countable and uncountable, plural reincarnations)

1. A rebirth of a soul, in a physical life form, such as a body.
2. The philosophy of such a rebirth, a specific belief or doctrine on how such a rebirth occurs.
3. A fresh embodiment.
4. A new, considerably improved, version.

Synonyms

• rebirth (1, and to some extent 2)
• (fresh embodiment): reembodiment

Derived terms

• reincarnationism
• reincarnationist

Related terms

• carnal
• incarnation
• reincarnate
• reincarnated

Translations

See also

• rebirth
• transmigration

Further reading

• reincarnation in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• reincarnation in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.