evolutionary
Americanadjective
-
pertaining to evolution or development; developmental.
the evolutionary origin of species.
-
of, relating to, or in accordance with a theory of evolution, especially in biology.
-
pertaining to or performing evolutions.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of evolutionary
Explanation
Evolutionary things have to do with how animals (or other things) change over time — this process of change is called evolution. Scientists that study living things are interested in evolutionary changes in form or behavior. It's not always easy to put the evolutionary pieces together, and scientists often have to rely on fossils to tell the whole story of evolution. Usually, evolutionary changes happen because they help the organism survive and reproduce. Many evolutionary questions are non-physical: How did the domestication of dogs change the behavior of canines from an evolutionary standpoint? When you see the word evolutionary, think "change."
Vocabulary lists containing evolutionary
Evolutionary BIology - Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity - Middle School
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Evolutionary BIology - Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity - High School
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Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
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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 launched “an evolutionary race upward toward the light,” which eventually produced trees as we know them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Beyond identifying a previously unknown species, the fossil provides an important missing piece in the evolutionary history of megaraptorans.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026
The research team also used mathematical modelling to investigate how the spread of megaraptors around the world might have changed over time, based on fossils discovered so far, dinosaurs' evolutionary trees, geography and climate.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
Its name translates to "unconquered female warrior," a reference to the powerful predators that later emerged from this evolutionary lineage.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026
The immediate appeal of Lamarck’s idea was that it offered a reassuring story of progress: all animals were progressively adapting to their environments, and thus progressively slouching along an evolutionary ladder toward perfection.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
