evolutiveadj.
/ˌiːvəˈl(j)uːtɪv/, /ˌɛvəˈl(j)uːtɪv/, U.S. /ˌɛvəˈludɪv/ Relating or tending to evolution or development; (also) promoting evolution.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > evolution > [adjective]
developing1808
evolutionary1810
evolutive1823
evolutional1862
derivative1871
historical1875
evolutionistic1885
transformistic1887
pre-evolutionary1889
1823 S. T. Coleridge Notebks. (1990) IV. §4941 This..is not indistinguishably continuous in cycle or in stream; but evolutive, and revolutionary.
1868 Catholic World Nov. 236/2 The egg represents a sort of organic formula, which resumes the evolutive conditions of a being determined by the fact that it proceeds from the egg.
1883 Nature 15 Feb. 367 The life of the sieve tubes may be divided into 2 periods; the evolutive and the passive.
1886 F. W. H. Myers in E. Gurney et al. Phantasms of Living I. Introd. p. xliii We have induced [by hypnotism] a change of personality which is not per se either evolutive or dissolutive.
1938 H. Wold Stud. in Anal. Stationary Time Series 1 Observational series which describe phenomena changing with time may be roughly classified in two broad categories, viz. evolutive and stationary.
1994 S. Romaine Lang. in Society vi. 170 Once creolization has occurred, the evolutive changes that take place thereafter may make it impossible to identify a prior creole or pidgin stage.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1823