involution

/ˌɪnvəˈluʃən/
noun
  1. The state or process of being complicated or intricate.
    • Critics complained about the unnecessary involution of the story's plot.
    • The design's involution added beauty but also confusion.
    • The involution of the legal system makes it hard for ordinary people to navigate.
  2. A mathematical operation that is its own inverse, such as multiplication by -1 or taking the reciprocal.
    • Students learned that the negative sign is an involution on the number line.
    • The teacher explained that flipping a coin is an involution in a simple sense.
    • In algebra, the function f(x) = 1/x is an involution because applying it twice returns the original value.
  3. A curling inward or the state of being rolled inward, as in biology or anatomy.
    • After childbirth, the uterus undergoes involution to return to its normal size.
    • The biologist observed the involution of the embryo's neural tube.
    • The involution of the leaf edge protects the plant from drying out.
Antonyms
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