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Evolution

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ēvolūtiō, ēvolūtiōnis (“the act of unrolling, unfolding or opening (of a book)”), from ēvolūtus, perfect passive participle of ēvolvō (“unroll, unfold”), from ex + volvō (“roll”).

Noun

evolution (countable and uncountable, plural evolutions)

  1. A change of position.
    1. (military) A manoeuvre of troops or ships. [from 17th c.]
    2. (chiefly dance, sports) A turning movement, especially of the body. [from 17th c.]
    3. (obsolete) A turned or twisted shape; an involution, a complex or intricate shape. [18th c.]
  2. An unfolding.
    1. (now rare) The act or process of unfolding or opening out; the progression of events in regular succession. [from 17th c.]
    2. (geometry) The opening out of a curve; now more generally, the gradual transformation of a curve by a change of the conditions generating it. [from 17th c.]
    3. (mathematics, now chiefly historical) The extraction of a root from a given power. [from 17th c.]
    4. (chemistry) The act or an instance of giving off gas; emission. [from 18th c.]
  3. Process of development.
    1. Development; the act or result of developing what was implicit in an idea, argument etc. [from 17th c.]

The ongoing evolution of Lolita subculture fashion includes, among other things, the ballet style.

    1. A process of gradual change in a given system, subject, product etc., especially from simpler to more complex forms. [from 18th c.]

Among other forms of change, the evolution of transportation has involved modification, diversification, convergence, divergence, hybridization, differentiation, and naturally, selection.

    1. (biology) The transformation of animals, plants and other living things into different forms (now understood as a change in genetic composition) by the accumulation of changes over successive generations. [from 19th c.]
Antonyms