Link Centre Dictionary

evolution

evo·lu·tion

UK/ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/ US/ɛvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/ fairly common

noun

1.

a process in which something passes by degrees to a different stage (especially a more advanced or mature stage)

  • “the development of his ideas took many years”
  • “the evolution of Greek civilization”
  • “the slow development of her skill as a writer”
Synonyms
Antonyms
2.

(biology) the sequence of events involved in the evolutionary development of a species or taxonomic group of organisms

Synonyms

Origin

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”). Compare typologically Czech vývoj, Serbo-Croatian развој, Russian разви́ть (razvítʹ), развива́ть (razvivátʹ), разви́ться (razvítʹsja), развива́ться (razvivátʹsja), Russian разви́тие (razvítije), related to Proto-Slavic *viti (whence Czech vít, Russian вить (vitʹ)).

Phrases

  • biological evolution
  • convergent evolution
  • cosmic evolution
  • cultural evolution
  • deistic evolution
  • emergent evolution
  • Evolution Day
  • evolution denial

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.