1. Transmigration of the soul; passage of the soul from one body to another; chiefly, the transmigration of the soul of a human being or animal at or after death into a new body (whether of the same or a different species), a tenet of the Pythagoreans and certain Eastern religions; especially, Buddhism.
2. Etymology: from Late Latin, from Greek metempsychosis which came from meta-, "change" + en, "in" + psyche, "soul".