Dictionary

involute en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin involutus.

Meanings

1. (formal) Difficult to understand; complicated.
   • These vulgar, pleasure-seeking people, so frank and clamorous, were too uninhibited for his shielded and involuted life. 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:
2. Having the edges rolled with the adaxial side outward.
   • Furthermore, the free anterior margin of the lobule is arched toward the lobe and is often involute[…] 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page 7:
3. (of shells) Having a complex pattern of coils in which younger whorls only partly surround older ones.
4. Turned inward at the margin, like the exterior lip of the shells of species in genus Cypraea.
5. Rolled inward spirally.

Forms

Deriveds

involutely

involute en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin involutus.

Meanings

1. A curve that cuts all tangents of another curve at right angles; traced by a point on a string that unwinds from a curved object.

Forms

Relateds

convolute · revolute · involution · evolute · advolute

Synonyms

evolvent

Translations (15)

it involuta (a curve that cuts all tangents of another curve at right angles; traced by a point on a string that unwinds from a curved object) · cs evolventa (a curve that cuts all tangents of another curve at right angles; traced by a point on a string that unwinds from a curved object) · uk евольве́нта (a curve that cuts all tangents of another curve at right angles; traced by a point on a string that unwinds from a curved object) · it evolvente (a curve that cuts all tangents of another curve at right angles; traced by a point on a string that unwinds from a curved object) · ru эвольве́нта (a curve that cuts all tangents of another curve at right angles; traced by a point on a string that unwinds from a curved object) · fi involuutta (a curve that cuts all tangents of another curve at right angles; traced by a point on a string that unwinds from a curved object) · hu evolvens (a curve that cuts all tangents of another curve at right angles; traced by a point on a string that unwinds from a curved object) · fr développante (a curve that cuts all tangents of another curve at right angles; traced by a point on a string that unwinds from a curved object) · es evolvente (a curve that cuts all tangents of another curve at right angles; traced by a point on a string that unwinds from a curved object) · de Evolvente (a curve that cuts all tangents of another curve at right angles; traced by a point on a string that unwinds from a curved object) · pl ewolwenta (a curve that cuts all tangents of another curve at right angles; traced by a point on a string that unwinds from a curved object) · tl sultag (a curve that cuts all tangents of another curve at right angles; traced by a point on a string that unwinds from a curved object) · fi evolventti (a curve that cuts all tangents of another curve at right angles; traced by a point on a string that unwinds from a curved object) · de Involute (a curve that cuts all tangents of another curve at right angles; traced by a point on a string that unwinds from a curved object) · ru инволю́та (a curve that cuts all tangents of another curve at right angles; traced by a point on a string that unwinds from a curved object)

involute en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin involutus.

Meanings

1. To roll or curl inwards.

Forms