revolution

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: rev=o=lu=tion

CIDE DICTIONARY

revolution, n. [F. révolution, L. revolutio. See Revolve.].

•  The act of revolving, or turning round on an axis or a center; the motion of a body round a fixed point or line; rotation; as, the revolution of a wheel, of a top, of the earth on its axis, etc.  [1913 Webster]
•  Return to a point before occupied, or to a point relatively the same; a rolling back; return; as, revolution in an ellipse or spiral.  [1913 Webster]

  "That fear
  Comes thundering back, with dreadful revolution,
  On my defenseless head."  [1913 Webster]
•  The space measured by the regular return of a revolving body; the period made by the regular recurrence of a measure of time, or by a succession of similar events.  Dryden.  [1913 Webster]
•  The motion of any body, as a planet or satellite, in a curved line or orbit, until it returns to the same point again, or to a point relatively the same; -- designated as the annual, anomalistic, nodical, sidereal, or tropical revolution, according as the point of return or completion has a fixed relation to the year, the anomaly, the nodes, the stars, or the tropics; as, the revolution of the earth about the sun; the revolution of the moon about the earth.  [1913 Webster]

  " The term is sometimes applied in astronomy to the motion of a single body, as a planet, about its own axis, but this motion is usually called rotation."  [1913 Webster]
•  The motion of a point, line, or surface about a point or line as its center or axis, in such a manner that a moving point generates a curve, a moving line a surface (called a surface of revolution), and a moving surface a solid (called a solid of revolution); as, the revolution of a right-angled triangle about one of its sides generates a cone; the revolution of a semicircle about the diameter generates a sphere.  [1913 Webster]
•  A total or radical change; as, a revolution in one's circumstances or way of living.  [1913 Webster]

  "The ability . . . of the great philosopher speedily produced a complete revolution throughout the department."  [1913 Webster]
•  A fundamental change in political organization, or in a government or constitution; the overthrow or renunciation of one government, and the substitution of another, by the governed.  [1913 Webster]

  " When used without qualifying terms, the word is often applied specifically, by way of eminence, to: (a) The English Revolution in 1689, when William of Orange and Mary became the reigning sovereigns, in place of James II. (b) The American Revolution, beginning in 1775, by which the English colonies, since known as the United States, secured their independence. (c) The revolution in France in 1789, commonly called the French Revolution, the subsequent revolutions in that country being designated by their dates, as the Revolution of 1830, of 1848, etc."  [1913 Webster]

  "The violence of revolutions is generally proportioned to the degree of the maladministration which has produced them."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

revolution, n.
1 a the forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favour of a new system. b (in Marxism) the replacement of one ruling class by another; the class struggle which is expected to lead to political change and the triumph of communism.
2 any fundamental change or reversal of conditions.
3 the act or an instance of revolving.
4 a motion in orbit or a circular course or round an axis or centre; rotation. b the single completion of an orbit or rotation. c the time taken for this.
5 a cyclic recurrence.

Idiom

revolution counter a device for indicating the number or rate of revolutions of an engine etc.

Derivative

revolutionism n. revolutionist n.

Etymology

ME f. OF revolution or LL revolutio (as REVOLVE)

DEVIL DICTIONARY

revolution

n. In politics, an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment. Specifically, in American history, the substitution of the rule of an Administration for that of a Ministry, whereby the welfare and happiness of the people were advanced a full half-inch. Revolutions are usually accompanied by a considerable effusion of blood, but are accounted worth it -- this appraisement being made by beneficiaries whose blood had not the mischance to be shed. The French revolution is of incalculable value to the Socialist of to-day; when he pulls the string actuating its bones its gestures are inexpressibly terrifying to gory tyrants suspected of fomenting law and order.

THESAURUS

revolution

Fabianism, about-face, accommodation, adaptation, adjustment, alteration, ambit, amelioration, anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism, anarchy, angular momentum, angular motion, angular velocity, antinomianism, apostasy, arsis, axial motion, beat, betterment, bout, bowling, break, breakup, capsizal, capsize, cataclysm, centrifugation, change, change of heart, changeableness, chaos, circle, circuit, circulation, circumgyration, circumrotation, circumvolution, civil disorder, confusion, constructive change, continuity, conversion, coup d'etat, course, crack-up, criminal syndicalism, culbute, cycle, defection, degeneration, degenerative change, deterioration, deviation, diastole, difference, diffusion, discontinuity, disintegration, disorder, disorderliness, disorganization, dispersal, disruption, dissolution, divergence, diversification, diversion, diversity, downbeat, emeute, exfoliation, extremism, fitting, flip-flop, fragmentation, full circle, general uprising, gradual change, gradualism, gyration, gyre, improvement, insurgence, insurgency, insurrection, jacquerie, lap, levee en masse, loop, lynch law, melioration, meliorism, metamorphosis, misrule, mitigation, mob law, mob rule, mobocracy, modification, modulation, mutiny, nihilism, ochlocracy, orbit, outbreak, overset, overthrow, overturn, peasant revolt, pirouette, pivoting, primal chaos, progressivism, pulse, putsch, qualification, radical change, radical reform, radicalism, re-creation, realignment, rebellion, redesign, reel, reeling, reform, reformation, reformism, regeneration, remaking, renewal, reorganization, reshaping, restructuring, reversal, revisionism, revival, revivification, revolt, revolute, revolve, riot, rising, roll, rolling, rotation, rotational motion, round, round trip, rounds, scaling, scattering, series, shake-up, shattering, shift, somersault, somerset, spell, spill, spin, spinning, subversion, sudden change, swinging, swirling, switch, swiveling, syndicalism, systole, take-over, thesis, tohubohu, total change, tour, transformation, transition, trolling, trundling, turbination, turmoil, turn, turnabout, turning, turnover, twirl, unruliness, upbeat, upheaval, uprising, upset, upturn, utopianism, variation, variety, violent change, volutation, volution, walk, wheel, wheeling, whir, whirl, whirling, worsening

ROGET THESAURUS

revolution

Disorder

N disorder, derangement, irregularity, anomaly, anarchy, anarchism, want of method, untidiness, disunion, discord, confusion, confusedness, mishmash, mix, disarray, jumble, huddle, litter, lumber, cahotage, farrago, mess, mash, muddle, muss, hash, hodgepodge, hotch-potch, hotch-pot, imbroglio, chaos, omnium gatherum, medley, mere mixture, fortuitous concourse of atoms, disjecta membra, rudis indigestaque moles, complexity, turmoil, ferment, to-do, trouble, pudder, pother, row, rumble, disturbance, hubbub, convulsion, tumult, uproar, revolution, riot, rumpus, stour, scramble, brawl, fracas, rhubarb, fight, free-for-all, row, ruction, rumpus, embroilment, melee, spill and pelt, rough and tumble, whirlwind, bear garden, Babel, Saturnalia, donnybrook, Donnybrook Fair, confusion worse confounded, most admired disorder, concordia discors, Bedlam, all hell broke loose, bull in a china shop, all the fat in the fire, diable a' quatre, Devil to pay, pretty kettle of fish, pretty piece of work, pretty piece of business, disorderly person, disorderly persons offence, misdemeanor, slattern, slut (libertine), disorderly, orderless, out of order, out of place, out of gear, irregular, desultory, anomalous, acephalous, deranged, aimless, disorganized, straggling, unmethodical, immethodical, unsymmetric, unsystematic, untidy, slovenly, dislocated, out of sorts, promiscuous, indiscriminate, chaotic, anarchical, unarranged &c (arrange), confused, deranged, topsy-turvy, shapeless, disjointed, out of joint, troublous, riotous, complex, irregularly, by fits, by fits and snatches, by fits and starts, pellmell, higgledy-piggledy, helter-skelter, harum-scarum, in a ferment, at sixes and sevens, at cross-purposes, upside down, the cart before the horse, hysteron proteron, chaos is come again, the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds.

Periodicity

N regularity of recurrence, periodicity, intermittence, beat, oscillation, pulse, pulsation, rhythm, alternation, alternateness, alternativeness, alternity, bout, round, revolution, rotation, turn, say, anniversary, jubilee, centenary, catamenia, courses, menses, menstrual flux, rota, cycle, period, stated time, routine, days of the week, Sunday, Monday, months of the year, January, feast, fast, Christmas, Easter, New Year's day, Allhallows, Allhallowmas, All Saints' Day, All Souls', All Souls' Day, Ash Wednesday, bicentennial, birthday, bissextile, Candlemas, Dewali, groundhog day, Halloween, Hallowmas, Lady day, leap year, Midsummer day, Muharram, woodchuck day, St. Swithin's day, natal day, yearbook, yuletide, punctuality, regularity, steadiness, periodic, periodical, serial, recurrent, cyclical, rhythmical, recurring, intermittent, remittent, alternate, every other, hourly, diurnal, daily, quotidian, tertian, weekly, hebdomadal, hebdomadary, biweekly, fortnightly, bimonthly, catamenial, monthly, menstrual, yearly, annual, biennial, triennial, centennial, secular, paschal, lenten, regular, steady, punctual, regular as clockwork, periodically, at regular intervals, at stated times, at fixed established, at established periods, punctually, de die in diem, from day to day, day by day, by turns, in turn, in rotation, alternately, every other day, off and on, ride and tie, round and round.

Change

N change, alteration, mutation, permutation, variation, modification, modulation, inflexion, mood, qualification, innovation, metastasis, deviation, turn, evolution, revolution, diversion, break, transformation, transfiguration, metamorphosis, transmutation, deoxidization, transubstantiation, mutagenesis transanimation, transmigration, metempsychosis, avatar, alterative, conversion, revolution &c (sudden or radical change), inversion, displacement, transference, changeableness, tergiversation, changed, newfangled, changeable, transitional, modifiable, alterative, mutatis mutandis, Int, quantum mutatus!, a change came o'er the spirit of my dream, nous avons change tout cela, tempora mutantur nos et mutamur in illis, non sum qualis eram, casaque tourner, corpora lente augescent cito extinguuntur, in statu quo ante bellum, still ending and beginning still, vox audita perit littera scripta manet.

Revolution

N revolution, bouleversement, subversion, break up, destruction, sudden change, radical change, sweeping organic change, change of state, phase change, quantum leap, quantum jump, clean sweep, coup d'etat, counter revolution, jump, leap, plunge, jerk, start, transilience, explosion, spasm, convulsion, throe, revulsion, storm, earthquake, cataclysm, legerdemain, unrecognizable, revolutionary.

Destruction

N destruction, waste, dissolution, breaking up, diruption, disruption, consumption, disorganization, fall, downfall, devastation, ruin, perdition, crash, eboulement, smash, havoc, delabrement, debacle, break down, break up, fall apart, prostration, desolation, bouleversement, wreck, wrack, shipwreck, cataclysm, washout, extinction, annihilation, destruction of life, knock-down blow, doom, crack of doom, destroying, demolition, demolishment, overthrow, subversion, suppression, abolition, biblioclasm, sacrifice, ravage, razzia, inactivation, incendiarism, revolution, extirpation, beginning of the end, commencement de la fin, road to ruin, dilapidation, sabotage, destroyed, perishing, trembling to its fall, nodding to its fall, tottering to its fall, in course of destruction, extinct, all-destroying, all-devouring, all-engulfing, destructive, subversive, ruinous, devastating, incendiary, deletory, destroying, suicidal, deadly, with crushing effect, with a sledge hammer, delenda est Carthago, dum Roma deliberat Saguntum perit, ecrasez l'infame.

Rotation

N rotation, revolution, spinning, gyration, turning about an axis, turning aound an axis, circulation, roll, circumrotation, circumvolution, circumgyration, volutation, circination, turbination, pirouette, convolution, verticity, whir, whirl, eddy, vortex, whirlpool, gurge, countercurrent, Maelstrom, Charybdis, Ixion, cyclone, tornado, whirlwind, dust devil, spin-out, axis, axis of rotation, swivel, pivot, pivot point, axle, spindle, pin, hinge, pole, arbor, bobbin, mandrel, axle shaft, gymbal, hub, hub of rotation, helix, helical motion, angular momentum, angular velocity, revolutions per minute, RPM, centrifugal force, surge, vertigo, dizzy round, coriolus force, carousel, merry-go-round, Ferris wheel, top, dreidel, teetotum, gyroscope, turntable, lazy suzan, screw, whirligig, rollingstone, water wheel, windmill, wheel, pulley wheel, roulette wheel, potter's wheel, pinwheel, gear, roller, flywheel, jack, caster, centrifuge, ultracentrifuge, bench centrifuge, refrigerated centrifuge, gas centrifuge, microfuge, drill, augur, oil rig, wagon wheel, wheel, tire, tyre, trochilics, whirling dervish, rotating, rotary, rotary, circumrotatory, trochilic, vertiginous, gyratory, vortical, vorticose, head over heels, round and round, like a horse in a mill.