evolution
pronunciation
How to pronounce evolution in British English:
UK [ˌiːvəˈluːʃn , ˌevəˈluːʃn]
How to pronounce evolution in American English:
US [ˌevəˈluːʃn]
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- Noun:
- a process in which something passes by degrees to a different stage (especially a more advanced or mature stage)
- (biology) the sequence of events involved in the evolutionary development of a species or taxonomic group of organisms
Word Origin
- evolution
- evolution: [17] Evolution originally meant simply ‘unfolding’, or metaphorically ‘development’; it was not used in its main current sense, ‘gradual change in form of a species over the centuries’, until the early 19th century. The Scottish geologist Charles Lyell appears to have been the first to do so, in his Principles of Geology 1832, and it was subsequently taken up by Charles Darwin.The word comes from Latin ēvolūtiō, which denoted specifically the unrolling of a papyrus or parchment roll. It was a derivative of ēvolvere, a compound formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and volvere ‘roll’ (source also of English convolution, involve, and revolve and related to vault, voluble, volume, vulva, and wallow).=> convolution, involve, revolve, volume, wallow
- evolution (n.)
- 1620s, "an opening of what was rolled up," from Latin evolutionem (nominative evolutio) "unrolling (of a book)," noun of action from past participle stem of evolvere "to unroll" (see evolve). Used in medicine, mathematics, and general writing in various senses including "growth to maturity and development of an individual living thing" (1660s). Modern use in biology, of species, first attested 1832 in works of Scottish geologist Charles Lyell. Charles Darwin used the word in print once only, in the closing paragraph of "The Origin of Species" (1859), and preferred descent with modification, in part because evolution already had been used in the discarded 18c. homunculus theory of embryological development (first proposed under this name by Bonnet, 1762) and in part because it carried a sense of "progress" not present in Darwin's idea. But Victorian belief in progress prevailed (and the advantages of brevity), and Herbert Spencer and other biologists after Darwin popularized evolution.
Antonym
Example
- 1. Because evolution is a numbers game .
- 2. Growth is always self-limiting , while evolution is unlimited .
- 3. Microsoft views virtual worlds as the natural evolution of online presence .
- 4. Here is why evolution is science and not conjecture .
- 5. This is a natural evolution of social networking .