Noun

(en noun)

The act of improving]]; advancement or growth; [[promote, promotion in desirable qualities; progress toward what is better; melioration; as, the improvement of the mind, of land, roads, etc.

* (Robert South)

I look upon your city as the best place of improvement .

* (Hugh Blair)

Exercise is the chief source of improvement in all our faculties.

* , chapter=19

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.

The act of making profitable use or application of anything, or the state of being profitably employed; a turning to good account; practical application, as of a doctrine, principle, or theory, stated in a discourse.

* (Samuel Clarke)

A good improvement of his reason.

* (John Tillotson)

I shall make some improvement of this doctrine.

The state of being improved; betterment; advance; also, that which is improved; as, the new edition is an improvement on the old.

* (Joseph Addison)

The parts of Sinon, Camilla, and some few others, are improvements on the Greek poet.

Increase; growth; progress; advance.

* (Joseph Addison)

There is a design of publishing the history of architecture, with its several improvements and decays.

* (Robert South)

Those vices which more particularly receive improvement by prosperity.

(plural): Valuable additions or betterments, as buildings, clearings, drains, fences, etc., on premises.

(Patent Laws): A useful addition to, or modification of, a machine, manufacture, or composition.

Noun

(en noun)

The process of accumulating change.

A progression of change, often branching and diversifying in the process.

(general) Gradual directional change especially one leading to a more advanced or complex form; growth; development.

* {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)

, chapter=4 citation , passage=By some paradoxical evolution rancour and intolerance have been established in the vanguard of primitive Christianity. Mrs. Spoker, in common with many of the stricter disciples of righteousness, was as inclement in demeanour as she was cadaverous in aspect.}}

* 1976 , (Richard Dawkins), (The Selfish Gene) :

There are some examples of cultural evolution' in birds and monkeys, but it is our own species that really shows what cultural ' evolution can do.

* 2005 , (Eckhart Tolle), (A New Earth) :

Suffering has a noble purpose: the evolution of consciousness and the burning up of the ego.

(biology) The change in the genetic composition of a population over successive generations.

* 1976 , (Richard Dawkins), (The Selfish Gene) :

[Some books have] made the erroneous assumption that the important thing in evolution is the good of the species (or the group) rather than the good of the individual (or the gene).

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Katrina G. Claw

, title= Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm , volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Many genes with reproductive roles also have antibacterial and immune functions, which indicate that the threat of microbial attack on the sperm or egg may be a major influence on rapid evolution during reproduction.}}

(chemistry) The act or an instance of giving off gas; emission.

(mathematics) The extraction of a root from a quantity.

(military) One of a series of ordered movements.

(dance, sports) A turning movement of the body.

* 1869 , Anon., Miss Langley's Will :

It was a critical instant: the pirouette -- it would fail, she feared. … the rapid whirl achieved in exact time, the whole evolution executed to perfection.

* 1825 , Theodore Edward Hook, Sayings and Doings: Passion and principle :

… as he beheld the tenfold pirouette of a lovely girl, which presented to the public eye the whole of her form and figure; … to praise the dexterity and ease with which the unfortunate and degraded creature had performed the ungraceful evolution , the only merit of which, is the gross exposition of person, at which modesty shudders […]

* 1863 , Knightley Willia Horlock, The master of the hounds :

"Look now, that pirouette -- my stars! how Beauchamp would stare to see his darling perform such an evolution !"

* 1869 , William Clarke, The boy's own book :

By this operation each foot will describe an arc or segment of a circle. … This evolution is performed sometimes on one foot, sometimes on the other …