Noun
The act of unfolding or unrolling; hence, in the process of growth; development; as, the evolution of a flower from a bud, or an animal from the egg.
A series of things unrolled or unfolded.
The formation of an involute by unwrapping a thread from a curve as an evolute.
The extraction of roots; -- the reverse of involution.
A prescribed movement of a body of troops, or a vessel or fleet; any movement designed to effect a new arrangement or disposition; a maneuver.
A general name for the history of the steps by which any living organism has acquired the morphological and physiological characters which distinguish it; a gradual unfolding of successive phases of growth or development.
That theory of generation which supposes the germ to preexist in the parent, and its parts to be developed, but not actually formed, by the procreative act; -- opposed to epigenesis.
That series of changes under natural law which involves continuous progress from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous in structure, and from the single and simple to the diverse and manifold in quality or function. The pocess is by some limited to organic beings; by others it is applied to the inorganic and the psychical. It is also applied to explain the existence and growth of institutions, manners, language, civilization, and every product of human activity. The agencies and laws of the process are variously explained by different philosophrs.
Source: Webster's dictionaryThe evolution of sense is, in a sense, the evolution of nonsense. Vladimir Nabokov
All the evolution we know of proceeds from the vague to the definite. Charles Sanders Peirce
God created a number of possibilities in case some of his prototypes failed - that is the meaning of evolution. Graham Greene
According to the concept of transformational evolution, first clearly articulated by Lamarck, evolution consists of the gradual transformation of organisms from one condition of existence to another. Ernst Mayr
Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. Albert Einstein
I believe that man is the product of natural evolution that is born from the conflict of being a prisoner and separated from nature, and from the need to find unity and harmony with it. Erich Fromm