Adjacent Words

Involution definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

INVOLU'TION, n. [L. involutio. See Involve.]
1. The action of involving or infolding.
2. The state of being entangled or involved; complication.
All things are mixed and causes blended by mutual involutions.
3. In grammar, the insertion of one or more clauses or members of a sentence between the agent or subject and the verb; a third intervening member within a second, _c; as, habitual falsehood, if we may judge from experience, infers absolute depravity.
4. In algebra, the raising of a quantity from its root to any power assigned. Thus 2x2x2=8. Here 8, the third power of 2, is found in involution, or multiplying the number into itself, and the product by the same number.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: reduction in size of an organ or part (as in the return of the uterus to normal size after childbirth)
2: a long and intricate and complicated grammatical construction
3: marked by elaborately complex detail [syn: elaborateness, elaboration, intricacy, involution]
4: the act of sharing in the activities of a group; "the teacher tried to increase his students' engagement in class activities" [syn: engagement, participation, involvement, involution] [ant: non-engagement, non- involvement, nonparticipation]
5: the process of raising a quantity to some assigned power [syn: exponentiation, involution]
6: the action of enfolding something [syn: involution, enfolding]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Latin involution-, involutio, from involvere Date: circa 1611 1. a. (1) the act or an instance of enfolding or entangling ; involvement (2) an involved grammatical construction usually characterized by the insertion of clauses between the subject and predicate b. complexity, intricacy 2. exponentiation 3. a. an inward curvature or penetration b. the formation of a gastrula by ingrowth of cells formed at the dorsal lip 4. a shrinking or return to a former size 5. the regressive alterations of a body or its parts characteristic of the aging process <skeletal involution due to loss of estrogens at menopause> • involutional adjective

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 the process of involving. 2 an entanglement. 3 intricacy. 4 curling inwards. 5 a part that curls upwards. 6 Math. the raising of a quantity to any power. 7 Physiol. the reduction in size of an organ in old age, or when its purpose has been fulfilled (esp. the uterus after childbirth). Derivatives: involutional adj. Etymology: L involutio (as INVOLVE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Involution In`vo*lu"tion, n. [L. involutio: cf. F. involution. See Involve.] 1. The act of involving or infolding. 2. The state of being entangled or involved; complication; entanglement. All things are mixed, and causes blended, by mutual involutions. --Glanvill. 3. That in which anything is involved, folded, or wrapped; envelope. --Sir T. Browne. 4. (Gram.) The insertion of one or more clauses between the subject and the verb, in a way that involves or complicates the construction. 5. (Math.) The act or process of raising a quantity to any power assigned; the multiplication of a quantity into itself a given number of times; -- the reverse of evolution. 6. (Geom.) The relation which exists between three or more sets of points, a.a', b.b', c.c', so related to a point O on the line, that the product Oa.Oa' = Ob.Ob' = Oc.Oc' is constant. Sets of lines or surfaces possessing corresponding properties may be in involution. 7. (Med.) The return of an enlarged part or organ to its normal size, as of the uterus after pregnancy.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Complication, intricacy, entanglement. 2. Inwrapping, infolding, infolded state. 3. (Math.) Raising to a power. 4. (Med.) Resorption.

Moby Thesaurus

absorption, addition, ambages, anfractuosity, approximation, circuitousness, circumambages, circumbendibus, circumlocution, circumvolution, comedown, complexity, complexness, complication, convolution, crabbedness, crinkle, crinkling, debasement, decadence, decadency, declension, declination, decline, deformation, degeneracy, degenerateness, degeneration, degradation, demotion, depravation, depravedness, depreciation, derogation, descent, deterioration, devolution, differentiation, division, downtrend, downturn, downward mobility, downward trend, drop, dying, ebb, effeteness, embarrassment, engagement, enmeshment, entanglement, equation, evolution, extrapolation, fading, failing, failure, failure of nerve, fall, falling-off, flexuosity, flexuousness, implication, inclusion, integration, interpolation, intorsion, intricacy, intricateness, inversion, involvement, lapse, loss of tone, meander, meandering, multiplication, notation, perplexity, practice, proportion, ramification, reduction, regression, relation, retrocession, retrogradation, retrogression, rivulation, sinuation, sinuosity, sinuousness, slinkiness, slippage, slump, snakiness, subtlety, subtraction, tanglement, technicality, torsion, tortility, tortuosity, tortuousness, transformation, turning, twisting, undulation, wane, wave, waving, winding