revolve

When something revolves, it turns on an axis or in an orbit around something else. People who love you probably think the world revolves around you (but really, the earth revolves around the sun).

Revolve comes from those useful Latin roots re- "again" or "back" and volvere "roll," as seen in evolution, involve, and lots of other familiar words. Picture a revolving door, and you can understand what it means to revolve, or turn in a circular motion.

Definitions of revolve
  1. verb
    turn on or around an axis or a center
    “The Earth revolves around the Sun”
    synonyms: go around, rotate
    circumvolve, rotate
    cause to turn on an axis or center
    see moresee less
    types:
    show 8 types...
    hide 8 types...
    drive in, screw
    cause to penetrate, as with a circular motion
    screw
    turn like a screw
    wheel, wheel around
    change directions as if revolving on a pivot
    gyrate, reel, spin, spin around, whirl
    revolve quickly and repeatedly around one's own axis
    swirl, twiddle, twirl, whirl
    turn in a twisting or spinning motion
    screw up
    screw or turn higher
    cartwheel
    do cartwheels: perform an acrobatic movement using both hands and feet
    whirligig
    whirl or spin like a whirligig
    type of:
    turn
    move around an axis or a center
  2. verb
    move in an orbit
    synonyms: orb, orbit
    see moresee less
    types:
    retrograde
    move backward in an orbit, of celestial bodies
    type of:
    circle, circulate
    move in circles
  3. verb
    cause to move by turning over or in a circular manner of as if on an axis
    synonyms: roll, trundle
    roll, turn over
    move by turning over or rotating
    see moresee less
    types:
    transit
    revolve (the telescope of a surveying transit) about its horizontal transverse axis in order to reverse its direction
    type of:
    displace, move
    cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense
Word Family