Involve

How to spell involve

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce involve

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does involve mean?

1. verbTo include something as a necessary part, or to draw a person into a situation or activity.

Involve in a sentence

• The new role will involve a lot of travel.

• The manager wanted to involve the whole team in the decision.

Where does involve come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin involvere, which literally meant 'to roll into' or 'to wrap up', formed from the prefix in- 'in, into' and the verb volvere 'to roll or turn'. The same volvere root rolls through a surprising family of English words, including 'revolve', 'evolve', 'volume' (originally a rolled-up scroll), and 'convolve'. English took 'involve' in the late 1300s, at first carrying the very physical sense of enveloping or enfolding something, as if wrapping it in cloth. Over time the meaning turned figurative: to involve someone became to wrap them up in an affair or to entangle them in a situation. That older image of rolling and wrapping explains the otherwise odd -olve ending, since the spelling preserves the Latin volv- rather than spelling out the sound.

How the word is built

• in- (in, into)
• volve (from Latin volvere: to roll, to turn)