| The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002. |
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| phoenix |
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| (FEE-niks) A mythical bird that periodically burned itself to death and emerged from the ashes as a new phoenix. According to most stories, the rebirth of the phoenix happened every five hundred years. Only one phoenix lived at a time. | 1 |
| ‡ To “rise like a phoenix from the ashes” is to overcome a seemingly insurmountable setback. | 2 |
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| | | The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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