[syn: involution, enfolding]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Involution \In`vo*lu"tion\, n. [L. involutio: cf. F. involution.
See Involve.]
[1913 Webster]
1. The act of involving or infolding.
[1913 Webster]
2. The state of being entangled or involved; complication;
entanglement.
[1913 Webster]
All things are mixed, and causes blended, by mutual
involutions. --Glanvill.
[1913 Webster]
3. That in which anything is involved, folded, or wrapped;
envelope. --Sir T. Browne.
[1913 Webster]
4. (Gram.) The insertion of one or more clauses between the
subject and the verb, in a way that involves or
complicates the construction.
[1913 Webster]
5. (Math.) The act or process of raising a quantity to any
power assigned; the multiplication of a quantity into
itself a given number of times; -- the reverse of
evolution.
[1913 Webster]
6. (Geom.) The relation which exists between three or more
sets of points, a.a', b.b', c.c', so related to a point O
on the line, that the product Oa.Oa' = Ob.Ob' = Oc.Oc' is
constant. Sets of lines or surfaces possessing
corresponding properties may be in involution.
[1913 Webster]
7. (Med.) The return of an enlarged part or organ to its
normal size, as of the uterus after pregnancy.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
involution
n 1: reduction in size of an organ or part (as in the return of
the uterus to normal size after childbirth)
2: a long and intricate and complicated grammatical construction
3: marked by elaborately complex detail [syn: elaborateness,
elaboration, intricacy, involution]
4: the act of sharing in the activities of a group; "the teacher
tried to increase his students' engagement in class
activities" [syn: engagement, participation,
involvement, involution] [ant: non-engagement, non-
involvement, nonparticipation]
5: the process of raising a quantity to some assigned power
[syn: exponentiation, involution]
6: the action of enfolding something [syn: involution,
enfolding]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
111 Moby Thesaurus words for "involution":
absorption, addition, ambages, anfractuosity, approximation,
circuitousness, circumambages, circumbendibus, circumlocution,
circumvolution, comedown, complexity, complexness, complication,
convolution, crabbedness, crinkle, crinkling, debasement,
decadence, decadency, declension, declination, decline,
deformation, degeneracy, degenerateness, degeneration, degradation,
demotion, depravation, depravedness, depreciation, derogation,
descent, deterioration, devolution, differentiation, division,
downtrend, downturn, downward mobility, downward trend, drop,
dying, ebb, effeteness, embarrassment, engagement, enmeshment,
entanglement, equation, evolution, extrapolation, fading, failing,
failure, failure of nerve, fall, falling-off, flexuosity,
flexuousness, implication, inclusion, integration, interpolation,
intorsion, intricacy, intricateness, inversion, involvement, lapse,
loss of tone, meander, meandering, multiplication, notation,
perplexity, practice, proportion, ramification, reduction,
regression, relation, retrocession, retrogradation, retrogression,
rivulation, sinuation, sinuosity, sinuousness, slinkiness,
slippage, slump, snakiness, subtlety, subtraction, tanglement,
technicality, torsion, tortility, tortuosity, tortuousness,
transformation, turning, twisting, undulation, wane, wave, waving,
winding