Definition of phoenix

• the state capital and largest city located in south central Arizona; situated in a former desert that has become a prosperous agricultural area thanks to irrigation
• a large monocotyledonous genus of pinnate-leaved palms found in Asia and Africa
• a legendary Arabian bird said to periodically burn itself to death and emerge from the ashes as a new phoenix; according to most versions only one phoenix lived at a time and it renewed itself every 500 years