involution — English Dictionary

Noun

1. Entanglement; a spiralling inwards; intricacy.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Examples

   […]usually his attention was diverted from her feet by her shrieks of laughter and the astounding involutions of her huge brown-yellow frame.

   ‘Gomez,’ said the mortician, ‘is an expert only on the involutions of his own rectum.’

2. A complicated grammatical construction.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   1917, James Huneker, Unicorns, New York: Scribner, Chapter 11 “Style and Rhythm in English Prose,” p. 129, Walter Pater’s essay on Style is honeycombed with involutions and preciosity.

3. An endofunction whose square is equal to the identity function; a function equal to its inverse.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Narrower terms

   complex conjugationcomplementation

   Examples

   Involutions have the property that they are their own inverses.

4. The shrinking of an organ (such as the uterus) to a former size.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

5. The regressive changes in the body occurring with old age.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

6. A power: the result of raising one number to the power of another.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Obsolete
   • Uncountable

7. A cessation of development or progress involving intense inner competition.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable
   • of a society or nation

8. A state of increased competition for limited resources, requiring great effort to stay ahead.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • neologism
   • Uncountable

9. The migration of a cell layer inward, sliding over an outer layer of cells. It occurs at gastrulation during embryogenesis.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

Noun

1. reduction in size of an organ or part (as in the return of the uterus to normal size after childbirth)

   Broader terms

   organic processbiological process

2. a long and intricate and complicated grammatical construction

   Broader terms

   constructiongrammatical constructionexpression

3. marked by elaborately complex detail

   Synonyms

   elaboratenesselaborationintricacy

   Broader terms

   complexitycomplexness

4. the act of sharing in the activities of a group

   Synonyms

   engagementparticipationinvolvement

   Broader terms

   group action

   Examples

   the teacher tried to increase his students' engagement in class activities

5. the process of raising a quantity to some assigned power

   Synonyms

   exponentiation

   Broader terms

   mathematical processmathematical operationoperation

6. the action of enfolding something

   Synonyms

   enfolding

   Broader terms

   change of shape