revolution
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌɹɛv.əˈluː.ʃən/
rhymes: -uːʃən
Forms: form: revolutions
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English revolucion, borrowed from Old French revolucion, from Late Latin revolūtiōnem, accusative singular of revolūtiō (“the act of revolving; revolution”), from Latin revolvō (“roll back, revolve”).
Senses: examples: text: The revolution had completely transformed the monarchy into a republic.
text: Una rivoluzione è certamente la cosa più autoritaria che ci sia: è l'atto per il quale una parte della popolazione impone la sua volontà all'altra parte per mezzo di fucili, baionette e cannoni; mezzi autoritari, se ce ne sono; e il partito vittorioso, se non vuole aver combattuto invano, deve continuare questo dominio col terrore che le sue armi inspirano ai reazionari.
ref: 1873 December [1872], Friedrich Engels, “Dell'autorità”, in Almanacco repubblicano per l'anno 1874; English translation in “On Authority”, in Marx/Engels Collected Works, volume 23, translation of original in Italian, 1988, page 425:
text: The essence of every revolution consisted and consists in putting a new class in power, thus enabling it to realize its own program in life.
ref: 1938 January 15 [1937 December], Leon Trotsky, “The Lessons of Spain--The Last Warning”, in Socialist Appeal, volume 2, number 3, page 4:
topics: government
politics
hypernyms: overhaul
glosses: A political upheaval in a government or state characterized by great change.
examples: text: For a long time the dormouse and polecat had seemed to him overfeeble enemies for his restless valour, even as the granary floor seemed to afford too narrow a field. Every day he read the papers of the previous day in the servants' hall of the houses he visited, and it appeared to him that this war in America, which was hailed as the awakening of the spirit of liberty and justice in the New World, ought to produce a revolution in France.
ref: 1837, George Sand, translated by Stanley Young, Mauprat, Cassandra Editions, published 1977, →ISBN, page 237:
topics: government
politics
hypernyms: overthrow
overthrowal
overthrowing
coordinate_terms: coup
coup d'état
putsch
glosses: The popular removal and replacement of a government, especially by sudden violent action.
examples: text: The ratio between the speeds of revolution of wheel and disc is substantially equal to the reciprocal of the ratio between the diameter of the wheel and the diameter of the mean contact circle on the disc.
ref: 1912, P. M. Heldt, The Gasoline Automobile: Its Design and Construction, Volume II: Transmission, Running Gear and Control, The Horseless Age Co., published 1913, page 147:
text: The Earth has two motions: a daily revolution (or turning around) upon its axis, and a yearly course around the sun.
ref: 1864, D. M. Warren, The Common-School Geography, Revised edition, H. Cowperthwait & Co., page 6:
text: Numerous cases are recorded which incontestibly prove that during pregnancy, the uterus perform a half or even a complete revolution, on itself, producing torsion of the cervix […]
ref: 1878, George Fleming, A Text-Book of Veterinary Obstetrics, Baillière, Tindall, & Cox, page 123:
synonyms: rev
glosses: Rotation: the turning of an object around an axis, one complete turn of an object during rotation.
examples: text: It takes 365 days for the Earth to complete one revolution around the sun.
topics: astronomy
natural-sciences
glosses: In the case of celestial bodies, the traversal of one body along an orbit around another body.
examples: text: the AI revolution
text: Ông Kac-Mac là kinh tế học K. M. Ông ấy ngiên kứu rõ ràng tư bản chủ ngĩa, dế quốc chủ ngĩa, zai kấp tranh dấu, vân vân ở dâu mà sinh ra; lịch sử nó thế nào, hiện tượng nó thế nào, và kết quả nó sẽ ra thế nào.
ref: 1927, Nguyễn Ái Quốc, “1. K. M. là zì?”, in Dường Kách mệnh; English translation from “1. What is a Revolution?”, in Vijay Prashad, transl., The Revolutionary Path (Selected Ho Chi Minh), translation of original in Vietnamese, 2022:
text: In 1825, the first public railway carried passengers across the English countryside, setting in motion not just an engineering revolution, but an industrial one too. Imagine the awe and excitement of those first passengers as they boarded the train, unaware that they were witnessing the dawn of a new era.
ref: 2025 October 1, Richard Evans, “The value of the railway effect”, in RAIL, number 1045, page 58:
antonyms: evolution
glosses: A sudden, vast change in a situation, a discipline, or the way of thinking and behaving.
glosses: A round of periodic changes, such as between the seasons of the year.
glosses: Consideration of an idea; the act of revolving something in the mind.
Derived terms: agricultural revolution
a revolution is not a dinner party
Blue Revolution
color revolution
colour revolution
coloured revolution
counter revolution
counter-revolution
democratic revolution
ellipsoid of revolution
French Revolution
Green Revolution
green revolution
hyperboloid of revolution
Industrial Revolution
information revolution
nerd revolution
Nicaraguan Revolution
Orange Revolution
palace revolution
paraboloid of revolution
permanent revolution
perpetual revolution
postrevolution
prerevolution
quiet revolution
Reagan Revolution
Revolution
revolutionary
revolutionize
robot revolution
Rose Revolution
Russian Revolution
sexual revolution
solid of revolution
surface of revolution
the revolution will not be civilized
the revolution will not be televised
White Revolution
Related terms: revolve