Word
involve
Phoneticsin·volve
US/ˌɪnˈvɑɫv/
UK/ɪnvˈɒlv/
Definitions
01to include or require
v. to have something as a necessary part or result.
v. to include something as a constituent part or as a necessary consequence of an action.
“The new project will involve a lot of hard work from everyone on the team.”
“The proposed expansion of the railway network will necessarily involve significant capital investment and years of environmental impact assessments.”
Usage
Takes a noun phrase or a gerund (-ing form) as a direct object.
Pitfall
The job involves to travel a lot.
The job involves travelling a lot.
When 'involve' is followed by another action, use the -ing form (gerund), not the infinitive.
Antonyms
02to participate or engage
v. to make someone take part in something or to become connected to a situation.
v. to cause someone to participate in an activity or to become implicated in a situation.
“We want to involve as many students as possible in the school play.”
“The investigators were careful not to involve innocent bystanders in the high-profile legal dispute until they had gathered sufficient evidence.”
Usage
Often used in the passive voice ('be involved in') or with a reflexive pronoun.
03to complicate or entangle
v. to make something complicated or to get someone into a difficult situation.
v. to entangle or implicate someone or something in a confusing or troublesome situation.
“He didn't want to get involved in his neighbors' private arguments.”
“The diplomat feared that a single misstep would involve the entire region in a protracted and unnecessary conflict.”
Formal · Literary
Synonyms
Antonyms
04to raise to a power
v. to multiply a number by itself several times.
v. to multiply a quantity by itself a specified number of times; to raise to a power.
“In the old manuscript, the scholar explained how to involve the number to the third degree.”
“The treatise detailed an early algebraic method to involve the variable before calculating the final sum of the series.”
Archaic · Technical
Teaching tip
This mathematical sense is largely obsolete in modern textbooks, which prefer 'raise to the power of'.
Synonyms
Etymology
PIE word *h₁én From Late Middle English involven (“to cloud; to encumber; to envelop, surround; to ponder (something); (reflexive) to concern (oneself) with something”) [and other forms], borrowed from Old French involver, envoudre, or from its etymon Latin involvere, the present active infinitive of Latin involvō (“to roll to or upon something; to roll about; to coil or curl up; to cover; to envelop, wrap up; to overwhelm”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + volvō (“to roll; to tumble”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn; to wind (turn coils)”)).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Collocations
Word family
Domain
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/involve