evolve

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

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

  1. (transitive)
    1. To move (something) in regular procession through a system.
      • a. 1677, 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
    2. To change or transform (something).
      What began as a few lines of code has now evolved into a million-line behemoth.
    3. To cause (something) to come into being or 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)
      1. Of a population: to acquire or develop (a trait) in the process of biological evolution.
        • 2013 September-October, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist‎[2], archived from the original on 3 September 2013:
          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.
        How long ago did birds evolve beaks?
      2. (chiefly passive) To cause (a population, a species, etc.) to change genetic composition over successive generations through the process of evolution.
        A hundred thousand years from now, will Homo sapiens have evolved into beings unrecognizable to their ancestors?
        • 1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, 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.
        • 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 204:
          The ice age was nearly two million years old by the time the woolly mammoth evolved.
    5. (chemistry) To give off (a gas such as carbon dioxide or oxygen) during a chemical reaction.
      to evolve odours
    6. (obsolete) To wind or unwind (something).
      • [1795], James Woodhouse, “[To William Shenstone, Esq. in His Sickness.] Elegy VI. To a Lady, on the Language of the Birds.”, in William Shenstone, The Poetical Works of William Shenstone. […], Cooke’s edition, London: […] C. Cooke, […], →OCLC, page 54, lines 9–12:
        And come, my Muſe! that lov'ſt the ſylvan ſhade, / Evolve the mazes, and the miſt diſpel; / Tranſlate the ſong; convince my doubting maid / No ſolemn Derviſe can explain ſo vvell— […]
  2. (intransitive)
    1. To move in regular procession through a system.
      • 1840, William Whewell, “Of Art and Science”, in The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded upon Their History. […], volume II, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […]; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: J. and J. J. Deighton, →OCLC, part II (Of Knowledge), book XI (Of the Construction of Science), paragraph 6, page 275:
        [T]he 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. To change, to transform.
    3. (biology) Of a trait; to develop within a population through biological evolution.
      How long ago did beaks evolve?

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Italian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Verb[edit]

evolve

  1. third-person singular present indicative of evolvere

Latin[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

ēvolve

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of ēvolvō

Portuguese[edit]

Verb[edit]

evolve

  1. inflection of evolver:
    1. third-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative
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