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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involvernoun
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reinvolveverb (used with object)
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overinvolveverb (used with object)
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involvementnoun
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interinvolveverb (used with object)
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preinvolveverb (used with object)
Conjugated Forms
Present
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has involvedperfect 3rd person singular
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have involvedperfect
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have been involvingperfect progressive
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has been involvingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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involvingparticiple
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involvessingular 3rd person
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is involvingprogressive 3rd person singular
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am involvingprogressive 1st person singular
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are involvingprogressive
Past
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had involvedperfect
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had been involvingperfect progressive
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involvedparticiple
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involvedsimple
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was involvingprogressive singular
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were involvingprogressive plural
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.
This will involve journals that require verification, hiring and tenure arrangements that reward exposition and checking, and collaborative practices for the verification of proofs.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 14, 2026
In Westminster, where between 69% and 72% of thefts from the person and personal robberies each week involve phones, there has been a reduction of 45.8% so far this year.
From BBC • Jun. 11, 2026
Artemis III will involve multiple launches of some of the most powerful rockets ever built.
From Science Daily • Jun. 11, 2026
Together, these capture both direct Hormuz movements and Gulf of Oman-linked flows that may involve “dark” transits, shuttle tanker movements or offshore transfers, Smith said.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 11, 2026
“That’s another reason it won’t be so easy to break out of the trap. It doesn’t only involve my own family.”
From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok
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.
