evolutionary
- 1Relating to the biological theory of evolution and the change of living species across successive generations.
The fossil record offers strong evidence for the evolutionary relationships among mammals.
Biologists trace the evolutionary origins of the human immune system.
Note
The core, biological sense, built simply from evolution plus -ary. It pairs naturally with nouns for lineage and change over time: evolutionary history, evolutionary origins, and the 'evolutionary trajectory' of Mycoplasma in Harold J. Morowitz's 2013 American Scientist essay. It is not comparable. A trait is evolutionary or it is not, so avoid 'more evolutionary'. The same holds for the analogical meaning.
- 2Resembling the biological theory of evolution in form or structure, applied to processes that change gradually through variation and selection.
The team applied an evolutionary algorithm to optimize the delivery routes.
Economists describe shifting markets using evolutionary models of competition and adaptation.
SimilarDarwinian
Note
Here biology becomes a model rather than a subject. The word travels to fields whose systems vary, compete and undergo selection without any organisms involved. Economics took it up early: in 1974 Richard R. Nelson and Sidney G. Winter set an 'evolutionary growth theory' against neoclassical ones. When the context is not living things, read the word as 'by analogy with evolution', not as a claim about biology.
Use it in a sentence
Write your own sentence with evolutionary, and AI will tell you whether it fits and which meaning you used.
Origin
Formed from "evolution" combined with the suffix "-ary".