Evolution
Etymology
From Latin "evolvere" — "e" (out) plus "volvere" (to roll) — originally the unrolling of a scroll. Darwin himself preferred “descent with modification”; the word “evolution” attached to his theory and now carries it.
noun · /ev-uh-LOO-shun/
The gradual change in the inherited traits of populations across generations, the process that produced all of life’s diversity.
What it names
The one framework that makes biology cohere — why species share deep similarities, why bacteria outrun antibiotics, why living things fit their environments without a designer.
Example
Antibiotic resistance is evolution in fast-forward: the bacteria that survive a drug pass on their survival to the next generation.
Related idea
Evolution is the outcome — populations changing over time; natural selection is the main mechanism driving it. Selection is the how; evolution is the what-happens-as-a-result.