INVOLUTION • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Involution

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noun

Involution n.

The act of involving or infolding.

The state of being entangled or involved; complication; entanglement. "All things are mixed, and causes blended, by mutual involutions."

That in which anything is involved, folded, or wrapped; envelope.

(Gram.) The insertion of one or more clauses between the subject and the verb, in a way that involves or complicates the construction.

(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.

(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.

(Med.) The return of an enlarged part or organ to its normal size, as of the uterus after pregnancy.

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Etymology of 'Involution'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Involution" Quotes from Famous Books

... of difficulty will, by those that have never considered words beyond their popular use, be thought only the jargon of a man willing to magnify his labors, and procure veneration to his studies by involution and obscurity. But every art is obscure to those that have not learned it; this uncertainty of terms, and commixture of ideas, is well known to those who have joined philosophy with grammar; and if I have not expressed them very clearly, it must be remembered that I am speaking of that ...

— Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books - with Introductions, Notes and Illustrations • Charles W. Eliot

... grows and unfolds itself. When you think to have done with them, and lift up your bonnet with a courteous gesture of leave-taking, your host draws your arm within his, and leads you out into his garden, and threading some labyrinthine involution of paths, conducts you to some hidden parterre of his choicest flowers, or to the aerial watch-tower of ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 358, August 1845 • Various

... or words, for one reason or another will be found to be at the bottom of the variations in usage in different printing offices and by different writers. The same tendency is observable here which is so evident in style and in punctuation. Direct statements, simple sentences as free from involution and complication as possible, are more and more taking the place of the involved, complicated, and obscure sentences of old times. The ideal style of to-day consists of simple words simply arranged. Such a style needs little pointing. The reader is quite able to find his way through the paragraph ...

— Capitals - A Primer of Information about Capitalization with some - Practical Typographic Hints as to the Use of Capitals • Frederick W. Hamilton

... now more than fifteen times its normal size and weight, begins gradually to contract and assume its normal weight of about two ounces; and it requires anywhere from four to eight weeks to accomplish this involution. In view of all this it is obvious that there can be no fixed time to "get up." It may be at the end of two weeks, or it may not be until the close of four or five weeks, in the case of the mother who cannot nurse her child; for the nursing of the breast ...

— The Mother and Her Child • William S. Sadler

Words linked to "Involution" : mathematical process, non-engagement, mathematical operation, group action, elaborateness, grammatical construction, enfolding, non-involvement, construction, involvement, organic process, intricacy, nonparticipation, expression