evolve

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Pronunciation

• (GA) IPA: /ɪˈvɑlv/
• (RP) IPA: /ɪˈvɒlv/

Verb

evolve (evolves, present participle evolving; past evolved, past participle evolved)

1. To move in regular procession through a system.

   • The animal soul sooner evolves itself to its full orb and extent than the human soul.

   • The principles which art involves, science alone evolves.

   • Not by any power evolved from man's own resources, but by a power which descended from above.

2. (intransitive) To change; transform.
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.

4. (biology) Of a population, to change genetic composition over successive generations through the process of evolution.
   • 1859, Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species, p. 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.

5. (chemistry) To give off (gas, such as oxygen or carbon dioxide during a reaction).

   to evolve odours

6. (transitive) To cause something to change or transform.

Related terms

Translations

• French: évoluer, progresser
• Portuguese: evoluir, progredir, crescer
• Russian: развива́ться
• Spanish: progresar, evolucionar

Translations

• French: élaborer
• Portuguese: desenvolver, elaborar
• Russian: развива́ться
• Spanish: desarrollar

Translations

• Portuguese: evoluir, evolucionar
• Russian: развива́ться
• Spanish: evolucionar

Translations

• Russian: испуска́ть

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