means The act of being born again or brought back to life, or a renewal so complete it feels like starting over.

from A plain English compound: the prefix 're-, 'again,' bolted onto 'birth,' from Old English 'gebyrd' and rooted in the verb 'beran,' to bear or carry (the same ancient root that gives us 'bear' a child). 'Birth' itself likely came into English under Old Norse influence, a Viking loan that settled comfortably into the language. So 'rebirth' is literally 'a bearing-again' — and it has long carried both the literal sense of new life and the figurative one of spiritual renewal, often shadowing the Latinate twin 'renaissance,' which means the very same thing.