INVOLVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does involve mean? 

• INVOLVE (verb)
  The verb INVOLVE has 7 senses:

1. connect closely and often incriminatingly

2. engage as a participant

3. have as a necessary feature

4. require as useful, just, or proper

5. contain as a part

6. occupy or engage the interest of

7. make complex or intricate or complicated

  Familiarity information: INVOLVE used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INVOLVE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they involve    ... he / she / it involves   
Past simple: involved   
Past participle: involved   
-ing form: involving   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Connect closely and often incriminatingly

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

affect; involve; regard

Context example:

This new ruling affects your business

Hypernyms (to "involve" is one way to...):

bear on; come to; concern; have to do with; pertain; refer; relate; touch; touch on (be relevant to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "involve"):

implicate (bring into intimate and incriminating connection)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

involvement (a connection of inclusion or containment)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Engage as a participant

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Context example:

Don't involve me in your family affairs!

Hypernyms (to "involve" is one way to...):

admit; include; let in (allow participation in or the right to be part of; permit to exercise the rights, functions, and responsibilities of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "involve"):

drag; drag in; embroil; sweep; sweep up; tangle (force into some kind of situation, condition, or course of action)

entangle; mire (entrap)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody PP

Derivation:

involution; involvement (the act of sharing in the activities of a group)

involvement (the condition of sharing in common with others (as fellows or partners etc.))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Have as a necessary feature

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

imply; involve

Context example:

This decision involves many changes

Hypernyms (to "involve" is one way to...):

feature; have (have as a feature)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "involve"):

carry (be necessarily associated with or result in or involve)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

involvement (a connection of inclusion or containment)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Require as useful, just, or proper

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

ask; call for; demand; involve; necessitate; need; postulate; require; take

Context example:

This intervention does not postulate a patient's consent

Verb group:

claim; exact; take (take as an undesirable consequence of some event or state of affairs)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "involve"):

claim; exact; take (take as an undesirable consequence of some event or state of affairs)

govern (require to be in a certain grammatical case, voice, or mood)

draw (require a specified depth for floating)

cost (require to lose, suffer, or sacrifice)

cry for; cry out for (need badly or desperately)

compel (necessitate or exact)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Contain as a part

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Context example:

Dinner at Joe's always involves at least six courses

Hypernyms (to "involve" is one way to...):

include (have as a part, be made up out of)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 6

Meaning:

Occupy or engage the interest of

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Context example:

His story completely involved me during the entire afternoon

Hypernyms (to "involve" is one way to...):

absorb; engage; engross; occupy (consume all of one's attention or time)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

involvement (a sense of concern with and curiosity about someone or something)

Sense 7

Meaning:

Make complex or intricate or complicated

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

The situation was rather involved

Hypernyms (to "involve" is one way to...):

complicate; elaborate; rarify; refine (make more complex, intricate, or richer)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

I had one strange experience as I came from this second visit which had involved my being away for a night from my companions.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If the medical problem is not urgent and involves skin, bones, teeth, or specifically the knees, I would put off that surgery until after March 30.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

All this time we, the outsiders, remained oppressed by the tremendous interests involved in the conversation; and our host regarded us with pride, as the victims of a salutary awe and astonishment.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Polybasic regions are involved in binding PKC.

(A Kinase Anchor Protein 12, NCI Thesaurus)

And this man I bent over—this commonplace, quiet stranger—how had he become involved in the web of horror? and why had the Fury flown at him?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

This gene is involved in cell adhesion, differentiation, division and stress response.

(ABL1 Gene, NCI Thesaurus)

It would be most right, and most wise, and, therefore must involve least suffering to go with the others.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

This allele, which encodes tyrosine-protein kinase ABL2 protein, is involved in signal transduction.

(ABL2 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

Previous research has shown that GSLs are common in the cells that comprise the uppermost layer of the skin, and also in cells involved in pigmentation of the eyes, skin and hair.

(New Experimental Drug Reverses Hair Loss, Skin Damage, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

This allele, which encodes multidrug resistance-associated protein 4, is involved in ATP hydrolysis, anion transport and platelet activation.

(ABCC4 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)