evolve
Americanverb (used with object)
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evolves,
present (3rd person singular)
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evolved,
past participle, past
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evolving
present participle
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to develop gradually.
to evolve a scheme.
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to give off or emit, as odors or vapors.
verb (used without object)
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evolves,
present (3rd person singular)
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evolved,
past participle, past
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evolving
present participle
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to come forth gradually into being; develop; undergo evolution.
The whole idea evolved from a casual remark.
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to gradually change one's opinions or beliefs.
candidates who are still evolving on the issue;
an evolved feminist mom.
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Biology. to develop by a process of evolution to a different adaptive state or condition.
The human species evolved from an ancestor that was probably arboreal.
verb
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to develop or cause to develop gradually
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(intr) (of animal or plant species) to undergo evolution
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(tr) to yield, emit, or give off (heat, gas, vapour, etc)
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To undergo biological evolution, as in the development of new species or new traits within a species.
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To develop a characteristic through the process of evolution.
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To undergo change and development, as the structures of the universe.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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evolvementnoun
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evolvernoun
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evolvableadjective
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nonevolvingadjective
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self-evolvedadjective
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self-evolvingadjective
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unevolvedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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evolvesimple
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evolvessimple
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have evolvedperfect
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has evolvedperfect
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am evolvingprogressive
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are evolvingprogressive
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is evolvingprogressive
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have been evolvingperfect progressive
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has been evolvingperfect progressive
Past
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evolvedsimple
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had evolvedperfect
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was evolvingprogressive
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were evolvingprogressive
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had been evolvingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of evolve
First recorded in 1635–45; from Latin ēvolvere “to unroll, open, unfold,” equivalent to ē- e- 1 + volvere “to roll, turn”
Explanation
When something evolves, it changes, or develops over time, like your taste in music and clothes, which evolve as you get older. Evolve comes from the Latin word evolvere, "to unroll" — the perfect image to keep in mind when thinking of this verb. When something is unrolling or unraveling, it is doing so gradually, not all at once. Evolve describes a development that is taking its time to reach its final destination. Think change with a speed limit. Your taste in music evolved from the nursery rhymes you loved as a little kid to whatever you like today. Even places can evolve, like the old-fashioned coffee shops that evolved into Internet cafés as people began to bring their laptops with them.
Vocabulary lists containing evolve
ACT Vocabulary List
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "E"
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50 Great Words from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
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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:
I’ve been sticking with a weight training routine for a couple of years now, but I try to evolve the exercises all the time because I get bored really easily.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
From the comedians’ own unravelings, failure to evolve to the audiences’ bad-faith misreadings, or sheer disinterest, to say there’s a disconnect between the two groups is to put it lightly.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
Electron spin and orbital motion become coupled, causing the energies of the Landau levels to evolve in a nonlinear way as the magnetic field changes.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 5, 2026
For the people smuggling gangs that still means money, and a need to evolve.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
How did small, noncentralized, kin-based societies evolve into large centralized ones in which most members are not closely related to each other?
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
O'Dowd said as Northern Ireland's "housing landscape evolves, we must ensure that residents living in apartments and other shared developments are protected by clear, fair, and effective regulation".
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
Tippett had occupied the 6,200-square-foot Berkeley facility for 35 years, but as technology evolves, the studio no longer needs the large space.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026
At the same time, they raise broader questions about how vision evolves, how tissues remain functional over extremely long periods and whether some of those protective mechanisms could ultimately be applied to humans.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026
As the memory business evolves in the coming years, Sandisk’s management anticipates that the company will be able to maintain extreme profitability.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
But that answer, and the idea that science evolves and that sometimes there is no way to predict the future, was uncomfortable.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
They could more readily imagine the bean becoming cattle feed or an industrial raw material – which is exactly how its use evolved, at first.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026
Their approach uses toxin-blocking proteins that western diamondback rattlesnakes evolved to protect themselves from venom.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 8, 2026
The benchmarks for the contemporary understanding of the American middle class evolved in the 20th century, said Sam Pizzigati, an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026
The group evolved from the government-supported Janjaweed militias of the 2000s to become the army’s most powerful ally before turning on it in 2023.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
The search began as a project, quickly evolved into a challenge, and now was an obsession.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
“The tools are evolving so quickly that students are effectively using very different tools by the time the possible negative effects of the old tools start appearing,” Kopec said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
SHANGHAI—Chinese biotech companies, rapidly evolving from manufacturers of low-end generic drugs to serious competitors to American pharma giants, are training their sights on one of the most lucrative medicines: GLP-1s.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Birds then continued evolving alongside other dinosaurs for nearly another 100 million years.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026
Since then, that development has extended far beyond a single hire, evolving into a team whose collective energy has come to define the store’s identity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
Within a few thousand years there were no more Neanderthals, who had been evolving as the sole occupants of Europe for hundreds of thousands of years.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
