renaissance

UK: 'Renaissance', 'renaissance': /rəˈneɪsəns/

US: /ˌrɛnəˈsɑns, ˈrɛnəˌsɑns/

US: (ren′ə säns′, -zäns′, -säns′, ren′ə säns′, -zäns′, -säns′; esp. Brit. ri nā′səns)

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

renaissance / rəˈneɪsəns ˈrɛnəˌsɒns/, renascence noun

1. a revival or rebirth, esp of culture and learning

Etymology: 19th Century: from French, from Latin re- + nascī to be born

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

Ren•ais•sance /ˌrɛnəˈsɑns, ˈrɛnəˌsɑns/   n. 

1. World History [proper noun* the + ~] the activity, spirit, or time of the great revival of art, literature, and learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century.
2. [countable* usually singular;
   usually: renaissance] any similar revival, renewal, or rebirth, as in the world of art and learning.

adj. [before a noun]

3. World History of, relating to, or suggesting the European Renaissance.

See -nat-.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

Ren•ais•sance  (ren′ə säns′, -zäns′, -säns′, ren′ə säns′, -zäns′, -säns′; esp. Brit. ri nā′səns), n. 

1. World History the activity, spirit, or time of the great revival of art, literature, and learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century, marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world.
2. Fine Art the forms and treatments in art used during this period.
3. (sometimes l.c.) any similar revival in the world of art and learning.
4. (l.c.) a renewal of life, vigor, interest, etc.;
   rebirth;
   revival:
   a moral renaissance.

adj. 

5. World History of, pertaining to, or suggestive of the European Renaissance of the 14th through the 17th centuries:
   Renaissance attitudes.
6. Architecture noting or pertaining to the group of architectural styles existing in Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries as adaptations of ancient Roman architectural details or compositional forms to contemporary uses, characterized at first by the free and inventive use of isolated details, later by the more imitative use of whole orders and compositional arrangements, with great attention to the formulation of compositional rules after the precepts of Vitruvius and the precedents of existing ruins, and at all periods by an emphasis on symmetry, exact mathematical relationships between parts, and a general effect of simplicity and repose.
7. Architecture noting or pertaining to any of the various adaptations of this group of styles in foreign architecture characterized typically by the playful or grotesque use of isolated details in more or less traditional buildings.
8. Furniture noting or pertaining to the furnishings or decorations of the Renaissance, in which motifs of classical derivation frequently appear.

• Latin renāscī; re- re- + nāscī to be born) + -ance -ance
• French, Middle French: rebirth, equivalent. to renaiss- (stem of renaistre to be born again
• 1830–40

Synonyms

• 4. resurgence, reawakening.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

Renaissance / rəˈneɪsəns ˈrɛnəˌsɒns/ noun

1. the Renaissance ⇒ the period of European history marking the waning of the Middle Ages and the rise of the modern world: usually considered as beginning in Italy in the 14th century
2. the spirit, culture, art, science, and thought of this period. Characteristics of the Renaissance are usually considered to include intensified classical scholarship, scientific and geographical discovery, a sense of individual human potentialities, and the assertion of the active and secular over the religious and contemplative life

adjective

1. of, characteristic of, or relating to the Renaissance, its culture, etc