evolve

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English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ēvolvō (“unroll, unfold”), from ē- (“out of”) (short form of ex) + volvō (“roll”).

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ɪˈvɑlv/
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ɪˈvɒlv/
  • Audio (UK):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɑlv, -ɒlv
  • Hyphenation: e‧volve

Verb

evolve (third-person singular simple present evolves, present participle evolving, simple past and past participle evolved)

  1. To move in regular procession through a system.
    • a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […], published 1677, →OCLC:
      The animal soul sooner expands and evolves it self to its full orb and extent than the humane Soul
    • 1840, William Whewell, The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences
      The principles which art involves, science alone evolves.
    • 1870, John Shairp, Culture and Religion
      Not by any power evolved from man's own resources, but by a power which descended from above.
  2. (intransitive) To change; transform.
    What began as a few lines of code has now evolved into a million-line behemoth.
  3. To come into being; develop.
    • 1939, P. G. Wodehouse, Uncle Fred in the Springtime
      You will remove the pig, place it in the car, and drive it to my house in Wiltshire. That is the plan I have evolved.
    • 2005, Donald Keene, quoting Emperor Kōmei, Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His world, 1852–1912‎[1], New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, chapter 9, page 78:
      […] I ask you, rather, to evolve a suitable plan with due deliberation and report it to me."14
  4. (biology) Of a population, to change genetic composition over successive generations through the process of evolution.
    • 1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Index”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 502:
      There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
    • 2013 September-October, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist:
      Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis: the ability to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and waste oxygen using solar energy.
    A hundred thousand years from now, will Homo sapiens have evolved into beings unrecognisable to their ancestors?
  5. (intransitive) Of a trait, to develop within a population via biological evolution.
    How long ago did beaks evolve?
  6. (transitive) Of a population, to acquire or develop (a trait) in the process of biological evolution.
    How long ago did birds evolve beaks?
  7. (chemistry) To give off (gas, such as oxygen or carbon dioxide during a reaction).
    to evolve odours
  8. (transitive) To cause something to change or transform.

Translations

Italian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /eˈvɔl.ve/
  • Rhymes: -ɔlve
  • Hyphenation: e‧vòl‧ve

Verb

evolve

  1. third-person singular present indicative of evolvere

Latin

Etymology

Verb

(deprecated template usage) ēvolve

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of ēvolvō

Portuguese

Verb

evolve

  1. Template:pt-verb-form-of
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