evolve

present singular third person evolves · participle present evolving · participle past evolved · past evolved

1. transitiveTo move (something) in regular procession through a system.

   The animal soul sooner expands and evolves it self to its full orb and extent than the humane Soul

   a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […], published 1677, →OCLC

   Synonyms: develop, progress

2. transitiveTo change or transform (something).

   Over several years the author evolved the story originally drafted as a novella into a real epic.

   Synonyms: develop, convert, develop, draw, metamorphize, metamorphose, reconvert, shift

3. transitiveTo cause (something) to come into being or develop.

   […]I ask you, rather, to evolve a suitable plan with due deliberation and report it to me."¹⁴

   2005, Donald Keene, quoting Emperor Kōmei, Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His world, 1852–1912, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, chapter 9, page 78

   2 more examples

   You will remove the pig, place it in the car, and drive it to my house in Wiltshire. That is the plan I have evolved.

   1939, P. G. Wodehouse, Uncle Fred in the Springtime

   The interpreter has spent a whole lot of time working the music before the performance, trying to evolve the most accurate translation possible.

   1979 August 25, Vicki Gabriner, Susan Freundlich, “Bridging the Gaps between Deaf and Hearing Lesbians”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 6, page 8

   Synonyms: contrive, generate, bring forth, cause, contrive, create, ferment, forge

4. transitiveusuallya speciesbiologyTo acquire or develop (a trait) in the process of biological evolution.

   How long ago did birds evolve beaks?

   1 more example

   Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis: the ability to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and waste oxygen using solar energy.

   2013 September-October, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist, archived from the original on 03 Sep 2013

5. intransitivetransitiveusuallya speciesbiologyTo change genetic composition over successive generations through the process of evolution.

   A hundred thousand years from now, will Homo sapiens have evolved into beings unrecognizable to their ancestors?

   3 more examples

   There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

   1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Recapitulation and Conclusion”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 490

   I like to envision a species of humanoids that, having evolved on the moon with one-sixth earth's gravity, are double our height but too spindly to play basketball.

   1989 May, John Boslough, “Searching for the Secrets of Gravity”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, pages 578-579

   The ice age was nearly two million years old by the time the woolly mammoth evolved.

   2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 204

6. transitivechemistryTo give off (a gas such as carbon dioxide or oxygen) during a chemical reaction.

   to evolve odours

7. obsoletetransitiveTo wind or unwind (something).

   And come, my Muſe! that lov'ſt the ſylvan ſhade, / Evolve the mazes, and the miſt diſpel; / Tranſlate the ſong; convince my doubting maid / No ſolemn Derviſe can explain ſo vvell— […]

   [1795], James Woodhouse, “[To William Shenstone, Esq. in His Sickness.] Elegy VI. To a Lady, on the Language of the Birds.”, in William Shenstone, The Poetical Works of William Shenstone. […], Cooke’s edition, London: […] C. Cooke, […], →OCLC, page 54, lines 9–12

8. intransitiveTo move in regular procession through a system.

   [T]he principles which Art involves, Science alone evolves.

   1840, William Whewell, “Of Art and Science”, in The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded upon Their History. […], volume II, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […]; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: J. and J. J. Deighton, →OCLC, part II (Of Knowledge), book XI (Of the Construction of Science), paragraph 6, page 275

   1 more example

   Not by any power evolved from man's own resources, but by a power which descended from above.

   1870, John Shairp, Culture and Religion

9. intransitiveTo change, to transform.

   What began as a few lines of code has now evolved into a million-line behemoth.

   1 more example

   An aide of Shah told Reuters that Shah had an early penchant for poetry that evolved into an affinity for rap music.

   2026 March 11, Chad de Guzman, “Who Is Balendra Shah, the Rapper On Track to Become Nepal’s Next Prime Minister”, in TIME, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2026

10. intransitivebiologyOf a trait; to develop within a population through biological evolution.

    How long ago did beaks evolve?