Meaning of evolution | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A change of position.
   countable, uncountable
2. A manoeuvre of troops or ships.
   countable, uncountable
3. The process by which species of organisms arise from earlier life forms and undergo change over a long period of time through natural selection. The genetic makeup of populations of organisms can be traced using fossils and recent advances in DNA technology to determine the relationships between members of a given species. See also natural selection. See Note at Darwin.
4. A turning movement, especially of the body.
   countable, uncountable
5. the theory of evolution by natural selection of those species best adapted to survive the struggle for existence. — Darwinian, n., ad).
6. A turned or twisted shape; an involution, a complex or intricate shape.
   countable, obsolete, uncountable
7. a principle or theory of evolution. — evolutionist, n., adj.
8. An unfolding.
   archaic, countable, uncountable
9. The act or process of unfolding or opening out; the progression of events in regular succession.
   archaic, countable, uncountable
10. the theory of organic evolution advanced by the French naturalist Lamarck that characteristics acquired by habit, diseases, or adaptations to change in environment may be inherited. — Lamarckian, n., adj.
11. The opening out of a curve; now more generally, the gradual transformation of a curve by a change of the conditions generating it.
    countable, uncountable
12. the theory that maintains natural selection to be the major factor in plant and animal evolution and denies the possibility of inheriting acquired characteristics. — Neo-Darwinist, n., adj. — Neo-Darwinian, n., adj.
    n
13. The extraction of a root from a given power.
    countable, historical, uncountable
14. a modern theory based on Lamarckism that states that acquired characteristics are inherited. — Neo-Lamarckian, n., adj.
15. The act or an instance of giving off gas; emission.
    countable, uncountable
16. progressive evolution, leading to the development of a new form, as can be seen through successive generations. See also society. — orthogenetic, adj.
    adj
17. Process of development.
    countable, uncountable
18. Development; the act or result of developing what was implicit in an idea, argument etc.
    countable, uncountable
19. the theory advanced by Darwin, now rejected, that each part of the body is represented in each cell by gemmules, which are the basic units of hereditary transmission. — pangenetic, adj.
    adj
20. A process of gradual change in a given system, subject, product etc., especially from simpler to more complex forms.
    countable, uncountable
21. the history of the development of a plant, animal, or racial type. — phylogenist, n. — phylogenetic, adj.
    n
22. The transformation of animals, plants and other living things into different forms (now understood as a change in genetic composition) by the accumulation of changes over successive generations.
    countable, uncountable
23. a devotion to the conditions which existed at the beginning of creation.

Equivalents

Examples

“Mean while, he never failed to be present, when any regiment, or corps of men, were drawn out to be exercised and reviewed, and accompanied them in all their evolutions […].”

“Major Holroyd, who acted as the General, was extremely polite, and attentive, and came to us between every evolution, to explain and talk over the manoeuvres.”

“Our necromancer […] taking up his wand, waved it around his head in a very mysterious motion, with a view of intimidating these forward visitants, who, far from being awed by this sort of evolution, became more and more obstreperous […].”

“It was a critical instant: the pirouette -- it would fail, she feared. … the rapid whirl achieved in exact time, the whole evolution executed to perfection.”

“… as he beheld the tenfold pirouette of a lovely girl, which presented to the public eye the whole of her form and figure; … to praise the dexterity and ease with which the unfortunate and degraded creature had performed the ungraceful evolution, the only merit of which, is the gross exposition of person, at which modesty shudders […]”

“"Look now, that pirouette -- my stars! how Beauchamp would stare to see his darling perform such an evolution!"”

“By this operation each foot will describe an arc or segment of a circle. … This evolution is performed sometimes on one foot, sometimes on the other …”

“‘It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crouded together, that the wonderful immensity of London consists.’”

“The world […] might have been gradually produced from very small beginnings […] rather than by a sudden evolution of the whole by the Almighty fiat.”

“The ongoing evolution of Lolita subculture fashion includes, among other things, the ballet style.”

“Suffering has a noble purpose: the evolution of consciousness and the burning up of the ego.”

“Among other forms of change, the evolution of transportation has involved modification, diversification, convergence, divergence, hybridization, differentiation, and naturally, selection.”

“By some paradoxical evolution rancour and intolerance have been established in the vanguard of primitive Christianity. Mrs. Spoker, in common with many of the stricter disciples of righteousness, was as inclement in demeanour as she was cadaverous in aspect.”

“There are some examples of cultural evolution in birds and monkeys, but […] it is our own species that really shows what cultural evolution can do.”

“[…]and thus he [Lamarck] was inclined to assert the priority of the types of marine animals to those of the terrestrial, and to fancy, for example, that the testacea of the ocean existed first, until some of them, by gradual evolution, were improved into those inhabiting the land.”

“[Some books have] made the erroneous assumption that the important thing in evolution is the good of the species (or the group) rather than the good of the individual (or the gene).”

“Many genes with reproductive roles also have antibacterial and immune functions, which indicate that the threat of microbial attack on the sperm or egg may be a major influence on rapid evolution during reproduction.”

CEFR level