• Involution

    Pronunciation

    • IPA: /ɪnvəˈluːʃən/
    • Rhymes: -uːʃən

    Origin

    From Latin involutio, from volvere ‘to roll’.

    Full definition of involution

    Noun

    involution

    (plural involutions)
    1. entanglement; a spiralling inwards; intricacy
      • 1968: ‘Gomez,’ said the mortician, ‘is an expert only on the involutions of his own rectum.’ — Anthony Burgess, Enderby Outside
    2. (mathematics) An endofunction whose square is equal to the identity function; a function equal to its inverse.
      • 1996, Alfred J. Menezes et al, Handbook of Applied Cryptography, CRC Press, page 10:Involutions have the property that they are their own inverses.
    3. (physiology) The regressive changes in the body occurring with old age.
    4. (mathematics, obsolete) A power: the result of raising one number to the power of another.
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