A phoenix is an imaginary bird which, according to ancient stories, burns itself to ashes every five hundred years and is then born again. 2. singular noun. If you describe someone or something as a phoenix, you mean that they return again after seeming to disappear or be destroyed. [literary]
<em>a legendary Arabian bird said to periodically burn itself to death and emerge from the ashes as a new </em><em>phoenix</em><em> </em><em> according to most versions only one phoenix lived at a time and it renewed itself every 500 years</em>
"C. was overthrown by invading Mongol tribes in A.D. 1279" would be the best phrase describing China's Song Dynasty, but this was of course not always the case.
