Definition of "evolution" []

• A gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form. See Synonyms at development. (noun)
• The process of developing. (noun)
• Gradual development. (noun)
• Biology Change in the genetic composition of a population during successive generations, as a result of natural selection acting on the genetic variation among individuals, and resulting in the development of new species. (noun)
• Biology The historical development of a related group of organisms; phylogeny. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This is the only possible policy of the revolutionary class, a policy arising directly from the _actual evolution_ of capitalistic militarism, in fact, dictated by the evolution."
• "So we think of evolution going on in mankind, evolution chequered by involution, but on the whole _progressive evolution_."
• "I consider the foregoing investigation as sufficient to prove the very extraordinary and important principle with respect to WATER, _that when subjected to the influence of the electric current, a quantity of it is decomposed exactly proportionate to the quantity of electricity which has passed_, notwithstanding the thousand variations in the conditions and circumstances under which it may at the time be placed; and further, that when the interference of certain secondary effects (742. &c.), together with the solution or recombination of the gas and the evolution of air, are guarded against, _the products of the decomposition may be collected with such accuracy, as to afford a very excellent and valuable measurer of the electricity concerned in their evolution_."