Metalogical adjective Beyond the scope or province of logic.

Metalorganic adjective [ Metal , Latin metallum + English organic .] (Chemistry) Pertaining to, or denoting, any one of a series of compounds of certain metallic elements with organic radicals; as, zinc methyl, sodium ethyl, etc. [ Written also metallorganic .]

Metamer noun [ See Metamere .] (Chemistry) Any one of several metameric forms of the same substance, or of different substances having the same composition; as, xylene has three metamers , viz., orthoxylene, metaxylene, and paraxylene.

Metamere noun [ Prefix meta- + -mere .] (Biol.) One of successive or homodynamous parts in animals and plants; one of a series of similar parts that follow one another in a vertebrate or articulate animal, as in an earthworm; a segment; a somite. See Illust. of Loeven's larva .

Metameric adjective [ Prefix meta- + Greek ... part.]
1. (Chemistry) Having the same elements united in the same proportion by weight, and with the same molecular weight, but possessing a different structure and different properties; as, methyl ether and ethyl alcohol are metameric compounds. See Isomeric .

» The existence of metameric compounds is due to the different arrangement of the same constituents in the molecule.

2. (Biol.) Of or pertaining to a metamere or its formation; as, metameric segmentation.

Metamerically adverb In a metameric manner.

Metamerism noun
1. (Biol.) The symmetry of a metameric structure; serial symmetry; the state of being made up of metameres.

2. (Chemistry) The state or quality of being metameric; also, the relation or condition of metameric compounds.

Metamorphic adjective [ See Metamorphosis .]
1. Subject to change; changeable; variable.

2. Causing a change of structure.

3. (Geol.) Pertaining to, produced by, or exhibiting, certain changes which minerals or rocks may have undergone since their original deposition; -- especially applied to the recrystallization which sedimentary rocks have undergone through the influence of heat and pressure, after which they are called metamorphic rocks.

Metamorphism noun (Geol.) The state or quality of being metamorphic; the process by which the material of rock masses has been more or less recrystallized by heat, pressure, etc., as in the change of sedimentary limestone to marble. Murchison.

Metamorphist noun (Eccl.) One who believes that the body of Christ was merged into the Deity when he ascended.

Metamorphize transitive verb To metamorphose.

Metamorphose transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Metamorphosed ; present participle & verbal noun Metamorphosing .] [ Confer French métamorphoser .] To change into a different form; to transform; to transmute.

And earth was metamorphosed into man.

Dryden.

Metamorphose noun [ Confer French métamorphose . See Metamorphosis .] Same as Metamorphosis .

Metamorphoser noun One who metamorphoses. [ R.] Gascoigne.

Metamorphosic adjective Changing the form; transforming. [ R.] Pownall.

Metamorphosis noun ; plural Metamorphoses . [ Latin , from Greek ..., from ... to be transformed; meta` beyond, over + morfh` form.]

1. Change of form, or structure; transformation.

2. (Biol.) A change in the form or function of a living organism, by a natural process of growth or development; as, the metamorphosis of the yolk into the embryo, of a tadpole into a frog, or of a bud into a blossom. Especially, that form of sexual reproduction in which an embryo undergoes a series of marked changes of external form, as the chrysalis stage, pupa stage, etc., in insects. In these intermediate stages sexual reproduction is usually impossible, but they ultimately pass into final and sexually developed forms, from the union of which organisms are produced which pass through the same cycle of changes. See Transformation .

3. (Physiol.) The change of material of one kind into another through the agency of the living organism; metabolism.

Vegetable metamorphosis (Botany) , the doctrine that flowers are homologous with leaf buds, and that the floral organs are transformed leaves.

Metanauplius noun [ New Latin See Meta- , and Nauplius .] (Zoology) A larval crustacean in a stage following the nauplius, and having about seven pairs of appendages.

Metanephritic adjective (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the metanephros.

Metanephros noun [ New Latin , from Greek ... behind + ... kidney.] (Anat.) The most posterior of the three pairs of embryonic renal organs developed in many vertebrates.

Metanotum noun [ New Latin , from Greek ... behind + ... back.] (Zoology) The dorsal portion of the metaphorax of insects.

Metantimonate noun (Chemistry) A salt of metantimonic acid.

Metantimonic adjective [ Prefix met- + antimonic .] (Chemistry) (a) Pertaining to, or designating, an acid (formerly called antimonic acid ) analogous to metaphosphoric acid, and obtained as a white amorphous insoluble substance, (HSbO ₃ ). (b) Formerly, designating an acid, which is now properly called pyroantimonic acid , and analogous to pyrophosphoric acid .

Metapectic adjective [ Prefix meta- + pectic .] (Chemistry) Pertaining to, or designating, a supposed acid obtained from pectin.

Metapectin noun (Chemistry) A substance obtained from, and resembling, pectin, and occurring in overripe fruits.

Metapeptone noun [ Prefix meta- + peptone .] (Physiol. Chem.) An intermediate product formed in the gastric digestion of albuminous matter.

Metaphor (mĕt"ȧ*fẽr) noun [ French métaphore , Latin metaphora , from Greek metafora` , from metafe`rein to carry over, transfer; meta` beyond, over + fe`rein to bring, bear.] (Rhet.) The transference of the relation between one set of objects to another set for the purpose of brief explanation; a compressed simile; e. g. , the ship plows the sea. Abbott & Seeley. "All the world's a stage." Shak.

» The statement, "that man is a fox," is a metaphor; but "that man is like a fox," is a simile, similitude, or comparison.

Metaphoric, Metaphorical adjective [ Greek ...: confer French métaphorique .] Of or pertaining to metaphor; comprising a metaphor; not literal; figurative; tropical; as, a metaphorical expression; a metaphorical sense. -- Met`a*phor"ic*al*ly , adverb -- Met`a*phor"ic*al*ness , noun

Metaphorist noun One who makes metaphors.

Metaphosphate noun (Chemistry) A salt of metaphosphoric acid.

Metaphosphoric adjective [ Prefix meta- + phosphoric .] (Chemistry) Pertaining to, or designating, a monobasic acid, HPO ₃ , analogous to nitric acid, and, by heating phosphoric acid, obtained as a crystalline substance, commonly called glacial phosphoric acid .

Metaphrase (mĕt"ȧ*frāz) noun [ Greek meta`frasis , from metafra`zein to paraphrase; meta` beyond, over + fra`zein to speak: confer French métaphrase .]
1. A verbal translation; a version or translation from one language into another, word for word; -- opposed to paraphrase . Dryden.

2. An answering phrase; repartee. Mrs. Browning.

Metaphrased (mĕt"ȧ*frāzd) adjective Translated literally.

Metaphrasis (me*tăf"rȧ*sĭs) noun [ New Latin See Metaphrase .] Metaphrase.

Metaphrast noun [ Greek ...: confer French métaphraste .] A literal translator.

Metaphrastic, Metaphrastical adjective [ Greek ....] Close, or literal.

Metaphysic noun [ Confer French métaphysique .] See Metaphysics .

Metaphysic adjective Metaphysical.

Metaphysical adjective [ Confer French métaphysique . See Metaphysics .]
1. Of or pertaining to metaphysics.

2. According to rules or principles of metaphysics; as, metaphysical reasoning.

3. Preternatural or supernatural. [ Obsolete]

The golden round
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crowned withal.

Shak.

Metaphysically adverb In the manner of metaphysical science, or of a metaphysician. South.

Metaphysician noun [ Confer French métaphysicien .] One who is versed in metaphysics.

Metaphysics noun [ Greek ... ... ... after those things which relate to external nature, after physics, from ... beyond, after + ... relating to external nature, natural, physical, from ... nature: confer French métaphysique . See Physics . The term was first used by the followers of Aristotle as a name for that part of his writings which came after , or followed, the part which treated of physics .]
1. The science of real as distinguished from phenomenal being; ontology; also, the science of being, with reference to its abstract and universal conditions, as distinguished from the science of determined or concrete being; the science of the conceptions and relations which are necessarily implied as true of every kind of being; philosophy in general; first principles, or the science of first principles.

» Metaphysics is distinguished as general and special . General metaphysics is the science of all being as being. Special metaphysics is the science of one kind of being; as, the metaphysics of chemistry, of morals, or of politics. According to Kant, a systematic exposition of those notions and truths, the knowledge of which is altogether independent of experience, would constitute the science of metaphysics.

Commonly, in the schools, called metaphysics , as being part of the philosophy of Aristotle, which hath that for title; but it is in another sense: for there it signifieth as much as "books written or placed after his natural philosophy." But the schools take them for "books of supernatural philosophy;" for the word metaphysic will bear both these senses.

Hobbes.

Now the science conversant about all such inferences of unknown being from its known manifestations, is called ontology, or metaphysics proper.

Sir W. Hamilton.

Metaphysics are [ is] the science which determines what can and what can not be known of being, and the laws of being, a priori.

Coleridge.

2. Hence: The scientific knowledge of mental phenomena; mental philosophy; psychology.

Metaphysics , in whatever latitude the term be taken, is a science or complement of sciences exclusively occupied with mind.

Sir W. Hamilton.

Whether, after all,
A larger metaphysics might not help
Our physics.

Mrs. Browning.

Metaphysis noun [ New Latin , from Greek ... after + ... nature.] Change of form; transformation.

Metaplasm noun [ Latin metaplasmus , Greek ...; ... beyond, over + ... to mold: confer French métaplasme .] (Gram.) A change in the letters or syllables of a word.

Metaplast noun [ See Metaplasm .] (Gram.) A word having more than one form of the root.

Metapode noun [ New Latin metapodium , from Greek ... behind + ..., dim. of poy`s , podo`s , foot.] (Zoology) The posterior division of the foot in the Gastropoda and Pteropoda.

Metapodial adjective (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the metapodialia, or to the parts of the limbs to which they belong.

Metapodiale noun ; plural Metapodialia . [ New Latin See Metapode .] (Anat.) One of the bones of either the metacarpus or metatarsus.

Metapodium noun ; plural Metapodia . [ New Latin ] (Zoology) Same as Metapode .

Metapophysis noun ; plural Metapophyses . [ New Latin See Meta- , and Apophysis .] (Anat.) A tubercle projecting from the anterior articular processes of some vertebræ; a mammillary process.

Metapterygium noun [ New Latin , from Greek ... after + ... fin.] (Anat.) The posterior of the three principal basal cartilages in the fins of fishes. -- Me*tap`ter*yg"i*al adjective