involve
Americanverb (used with object)
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to include as a necessary circumstance, condition, or consequence; imply; entail.
This job involves long hours and hard work.
- Synonyms:
- demand, require, necessitate
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to engage or employ.
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to affect, as something within the scope of operation.
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to include, contain, or comprehend within itself or its scope.
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to bring into an intricate or complicated form or condition.
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to bring into difficulties (usually followed bywith ).
The investigation discovered a plot to involve one nation in a war with another.
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to cause to be troublesomely associated or concerned, as in something embarrassing or unfavorable.
Don't involve me in your quarrel!
- Antonyms:
- extricate
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to combine inextricably (usually followed bywith ).
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to implicate, as in guilt or crime, or in any matter or affair.
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to engage the interests or emotions or commitment of.
The professor involved many students in the disarmament movement.
Her husband became involved with another woman.
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to preoccupy or absorb fully (usually used passively or reflexively).
You are much too involved with the problem to see it clearly.
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to envelop or enfold, as if with a wrapping.
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to swallow up, engulf, or overwhelm.
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Archaic. to roll, surround, or shroud, as in a wrapping.
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to roll up on itself; wind spirally; coil; wreathe.
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verb
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to include or contain as a necessary part
the task involves hard work
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to have an effect on; spread to
the investigation involved many innocent people
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(often passive; usually foll by in or with) to concern or associate significantly
many people were involved in the crime
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(often passive) to make complicated; tangle
the situation was further involved by her disappearance
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rare to wrap or surround
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obsolete maths to raise to a specified power
Synonym Usage
Involve, entangle, implicate imply getting a person connected or bound up with something from which it is difficult to be freed. To involve is to bring more or less deeply into something, especially of a complicated, embarrassing, or troublesome nature: I'd rather not to involve someone else in my debt. To entangle (usually passive or reflexive) is to involve so deeply in a tangle as to confuse and make helpless: The candidate tended to entangle himself in a mass of contradictory statements. To implicate is to connect a person with something discreditable or wrong: She was implicated in a plot to assassinate the governor.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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involvementnoun
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involvernoun
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interinvolveverb (used with object)
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overinvolveverb (used with object)
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preinvolveverb (used with object)
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reinvolveverb (used with object)
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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involvesimple
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involvessimple
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have involvedperfect
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has involvedperfect
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am involvingprogressive
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are involvingprogressive
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is involvingprogressive
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have been involvingperfect progressive
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has been involvingperfect progressive
Past
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involvedsimple
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had involvedperfect
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was involvingprogressive
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were involvingprogressive
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had been involvingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of involve
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English involven, from Latin involvere “to roll in or up,” equivalent to in- in- 2 + volvere “to roll”; see revolve
Explanation
To involve means to connect. When you get involved in the Spanish Club, you attend meetings and events. If doing math well is involved in understanding advanced chemistry, that means it's a necessary part of it. When someone is very involved, it means they are engaged or connected to a lot of activities. When someone is self-involved, all they connect with is him or herself. If getting ice cream involves walking a mile to the ice cream shop, the exercise offsets the indulgence. When no exercise is involved, it's less healthy.
Vocabulary lists containing involve
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 5
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The New SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The U.S.-backed talks involve the government of acting President Delcy Rodriguez and some of the political opposition, part of Washington’s broad stabilization-and-recovery plan for the troubled South American country.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
De la Espriella's inauguration will involve one of the largest security deployments planned for the ceremony, with around 11,000 soldiers and police officers carrying out operations on land, at sea and in the air.
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
Houghton and Vartarian had just been assigned to Elgin's new cold case unit in 2024 when the chief informed them that the job would also involve podcasting.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
Stevens has supporters, though their idea of Saturday night may not involve going to campaign rallies.
From Slate ● Jul. 30, 2026
“The Island of Living Gold is possible. It is guarded by a dragon, so it might involve being burned to death, but it is possible,” said Nighthand.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
Perhaps the trickiest what-if scenario involves eldercare concerns.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 1, 2026
Part of their unofficial relationship homework involves field missions that spark heated conversations about masculine insecurity and Diarra’s conflicted desires about motherhood.
From Salon ● Aug. 1, 2026
The brief stinger involves the Spider-Man tracking app created by Ned, which allows users to log any sightings of the webslinger.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
The design for the embassy by David Chipperfield Architects involves restoring and partially demolishing and extending existing the historic buildings on the bank of the Thames.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
“The typical black bear-inflicted injury,” he writes blandly, “is minor and usually involves only a few scratches or light bites.”
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
Staveley and Ghodoussi were previously shareholders at Newcastle between 2021 and 2024, having been involved with the takeover of the Tyneside club by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
Kronauer's team found that some of the neuromodulatory mechanisms involved in caregiving overlap in ants and mice.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026
But investors more recently seem to be coming around to the notion that Big Tech spending on AI can make sense—as long as there is a cloud-computing business involved that can reap the benefits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
Geological Survey who was not involved in the study, but has found similar drops in the percentage of homes surviving in much of the American West.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026
“There were lots of babies. And if I was listed as a witness and you were listed as survivors—that’s the only thing I’ve ever witnessed where government agents got involved like that.”
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
There have been more than 1,330 incidents involving Israeli settlers that resulted in casualties, property damage or both since the start of 2026, according to the U.N.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
The cases involving ABC and CBS ended in December 2024 and July 2025 with the broadcasters promising to pay $15 million and $16 million, respectively.
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
Previous pooled analyses involving several groups of participants found no meaningful association between dementia risk and common sleep measurements.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 31, 2026
The conversations were taped between March and October 2024 involving members of the department’s recruitment unit, whose officers are tasked with deciding who can join the police force.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
Two cuco attacks in two towns, during a vote involving Spares, was fishy enough on its own, but three was a conspiracy.
From "Witchlings" by Claribel A. Ortega
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
