evolution

noun13

1. •
   the slow change of living things into new forms over very many generations

   • [Some books have] made the erroneous assumption that the important thing in evolution is the good of the species (or the group) rather than the good of the individual (or the gene). — 1976
2. •
   Process of development.
3. •
   Development; the act or result of developing what was implicit in an idea, argument etc.

   • The ongoing evolution of Lolita subculture fashion includes, among other things, the ballet style.
4. •
   A process of gradual change in a given system, subject, product etc., especially from simpler to more complex forms.

   • Among other forms of change, the evolution of transportation has involved modification, diversification, convergence, divergence, hybridization, differentiation, and naturally, selection.
5. •
   The act or an instance of giving off gas; emission.

   • Allantoxaidin is decomposed on heating, with evolution of ammonia and cyanic acid. — 1879
6. •
   An unfolding.
7. •
   A change of position.
8. •
   A manoeuvre of troops or ships.

   • Mean while, he never failed to be present, when any regiment, or corps of men, were drawn out to be exercised and reviewed, and accompanied them in all their evolutions […]. — 1751
9. •
   A turning movement, especially of the body.

   • It was a critical instant: the pirouette -- it would fail, she feared. … the rapid whirl achieved in exact time, the whole evolution executed to perfection. — 1869
10. •
    The opening out of a curve; now more generally, the gradual transformation of a curve by a change of the conditions generating it.
11. •
    (historical) The extraction of a root from a given power.
12. •
    (no longer used) The act or process of unfolding or opening out; the progression of events in regular succession.

    • The world […] might have been gradually produced from very small beginnings […] rather than by a sudden evolution of the whole by the Almighty fiat. — 1794
13. •
    (no longer used) A turned or twisted shape; an involution, a complex or intricate shape.

    • ‘It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crouded together, that the wonderful immensity of London consists.’ — 1791