EVOLUTION
Dictionary entry overview: What does evolution mean?
• EVOLUTION (noun)
The noun EVOLUTION has 2 senses:
1. a process in which something passes by degrees to a different stage (especially a more advanced or mature stage)
2. (biology) the sequence of events involved in the evolutionary development of a species or taxonomic group of organisms
Familiarity information: EVOLUTION used as a noun is rare.
Dictionary entry details
• EVOLUTION (noun)
Meaning:
A process in which something passes by degrees to a different stage (especially a more advanced or mature stage)
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural processes
Synonyms:
evolution; development
Context examples:
the development of his ideas took many years / the evolution of Greek civilization / the slow development of her skill as a writer
Hypernyms ("evolution" is a kind of...):
physical process; process (a sustained phenomenon or one marked by gradual changes through a series of states)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "evolution"):
assibilation (the development of a consonant phoneme into a sibilant)
deepening (a process of becoming deeper and more profound)
growth (a progression from simpler to more complex forms)
flowering; unfolding (a developmental process)
Antonym:
devolution (the process of declining from a higher to a lower level of effective power or vitality or essential quality)
Meaning:
(biology) the sequence of events involved in the evolutionary development of a species or taxonomic group of organisms
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural processes
Synonyms:
organic evolution; phylogenesis; phylogeny; evolution
Hypernyms ("evolution" is a kind of...):
biological process; organic process (a process occurring in living organisms)
Domain category:
biological science; biology (the science that studies living organisms)
Domain member category:
Scopes trial (a highly publicized trial in 1925 when John Thomas Scopes violated a Tennessee state law by teaching evolution in high school; Scopes was prosecuted by William Jennings Bryan and defended by Clarence Darrow; Scopes was convicted but the verdict was later reversed)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "evolution"):
microevolution (evolution resulting from small specific genetic changes that can lead to a new subspecies)
macroevolution (evolution on a large scale extending over geologic era and resulting in the formation of new taxonomic groups)
emergent evolution (the appearance of entirely new properties at certain critical stages in the course of evolution)
anthropogenesis; anthropogeny (the evolution or genesis of the human race)
anamorphism; anamorphosis (the evolution of one type of organism from another by a long series of gradual changes)
speciation (the evolution of a biological species)
