Pronunciation: (ren"u-säns', -zäns', -säns', ren'u-säns",
-zäns", -säns"; esp. Brit. ri-nā'suns), [key] 1. 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. 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. 1. of,
pertaining to, or suggestive of the European Renaissance of the
14th through the 17th centuries: Renaissance attitudes. 2.
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 compositi