Evolutionary

How to spell evolutionary

12 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce evolutionary

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does evolutionary mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to gradual development, especially the biological process by which species change over generations.

Evolutionary in a sentence

• The museum exhibit traced the evolutionary history of whales.

• The company favoured an evolutionary approach, making small improvements each year.

Where does evolutionary come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb volvere, which literally meant 'to roll' or 'to turn'. With the prefix e- (a form of ex-, meaning 'out'), the compound evolvere meant 'to roll out' or 'to unroll', as one might unroll a scroll to reveal its contents. From this came the Latin noun evolutio, describing the unrolling of a book, and English borrowed 'evolution' in the seventeenth century to mean a gradual unfolding or development. The adjective 'evolutionary' was formed by adding the suffix -ary, meaning 'relating to', and it gained huge currency in the nineteenth century when Charles Darwin's work made evolution the central idea of biology. The buried Latin 'roll' sense is a useful memory aid for the spelling: the middle holds 'volut', the same root that sits inside 'revolve' and 'volume'.

How the word is built

• e- (out)
• volut (from volvere: to roll)
• -ion (noun-forming)
• -ary (relating to)