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regenerate

/rɪˈdʒɛnəreɪt//rɪˈdʒɛnəreɪt/·verb
to regrow or restore something after loss or damage
Fig. 1 — A phoenix burns bright, then is consumed by its own fire and collapses into a glowing heap of embers.
01Definition

To regenerate is to grow back — to restore what was lost or damaged until the whole is made new again. A lizard regenerates a tail, a forest regenerates after fire, and a run-down district can be regenerated by investment. From Latin regenerare, 'to bring forth again', it implies renewal from within rather than mere repair from outside: the thing rebuilds itself out of its own living tissue. It is the counter-motion to letting something deplete or deteriorate, running the process backwards toward fullness.

02In use
  • iGiven a few seasons, the burned hillside will regenerate with no replanting at all.
  • iiLiver tissue can regenerate even after a large part of it has been removed.
  • iiiThe grant aims to regenerate a district that decades of neglect had left to deteriorate.
03Collocations
  • regenerate naturally
  • regenerate tissue
  • urban regeneration
  • regenerate the economy

Family regeneration (noun) · regenerative (adjective)

04Relations

=renew, restore, revive, replenish, rebuild

≠deplete, deteriorate, destroy

06TOEFL & IELTS

High-value for TOEFL biology and IELTS on cities and the environment ('urban regeneration', 'forest regeneration'). The noun regeneration is the form most often tested. Stress the third syllable in the verb (re-GEN-er-ate), and read it as the positive counterpart to deplete — what is regenerated is rebuilt, not merely patched.

07Asked
What does regenerate mean in biology?
To regrow lost or damaged tissue from the organism's own cells. The champions are famous: an axolotl regrows entire limbs, some starfish rebuild a whole body from one arm, and the human liver regrows from a fraction of itself — the standout among our organs for rebuilding lost mass. The defining condition is the source: the replacement is grown from within, not grafted on.
What does urban regeneration mean?
The renewal of a run-down district — and, done properly, not just of its buildings: transport, jobs, housing and public space are meant to revive together. The term is the standard British one; American planning says urban renewal or revitalization for the same work. Critics keep one eye on it because regeneration that lifts rents without lifting residents gets a different name: gentrification.
What's the difference between regenerate and restore?
Who does the rebuilding. Restoration arrives from outside: a conservator restores a painting, returning it to a former state by external skill. Regeneration works from within: the thing regrows itself out of its own living material. The scene above is the distinction burning: no repairer approaches the phoenix — the bird reassembles out of its own embers, the same self made new.
What does regenerative mean, as in regenerative agriculture?
Describing practices that rebuild the resource they use instead of merely sparing it. Regenerative agriculture aims to leave soil healthier each season; regenerative medicine grows replacement tissue; regenerative braking recovers a car's energy as it slows. The adjective is the family's growth stock — wherever it appears, the claim is the same: use, and leave fuller than you found.