INVOLUTION

involution, enfolding

(noun) the action of enfolding something

exponentiation, involution

(noun) the process of raising a quantity to some assigned power

engagement, participation, involvement, involution

(noun) the act of sharing in the activities of a group; “the teacher tried to increase his students’ engagement in class activities”

elaborateness, elaboration, intricacy, involution

(noun) marked by elaborately complex detail

involution

(noun) a long and intricate and complicated grammatical construction

involution

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

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

involution (countable and uncountable, plural involutions)

Entanglement; a spiralling inwards; intricacy.

A complicated grammatical construction.

(mathematics) An endofunction whose square is equal to the identity function; a function equal to its inverse.

Hyponyms: complex conjugation, complementation

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

(physiology) The regressive changes in the body occurring with old age.

(mathematics, obsolete) A power: the result of raising one number to the power of another.

Source: Wiktionary

In`vo*lu"tion, n. Etym: [L. involutio: cf. F. involution. See Involve.]

1. The act of involving or infolding.

2. The state of being entangled or involved; complication; entanglement. All things are mixed, and causes blended, by mutual involutions. Glanvill.

3. That in which anything is involved, folded, or wrapped; envelope. Sir T. Browne.

4. (Gram.)

Definition: The insertion of one or more clauses between the subject and the verb, in a way that involves or complicates the construction.

5. (Math.)

Definition: 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.

6. (Geom.)

Definition: 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.

7. (Med.)

Definition: The return of an enlarged part or organ to its normal size, as of the uterus after pregnancy.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition