Involute
adj, noun, verb
adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 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.
Verb
- 1 To roll or curl inwards.
Adjective
- 1 Difficult to understand; complicated. formal
"These vulgar, pleasure-seeking people, so frank and clamorous, were too uninhibited for his shielded and involuted life."
- 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[…]"
- 3 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.
Adjective
- 1 (of some shells) closely coiled so that the axis is obscured wordnet
- 2 especially of petals or leaves in bud; having margins rolled inward wordnet
Example
More examples"These vulgar, pleasure-seeking people, so frank and clamorous, were too uninhibited for his shielded and involuted life."
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin involutus.
Related phrases
More for "involute"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.