Meaning of revolution in English

revolution

noun

/ˌrev.əˈluː.ʃən/ uk

/ˌrev.əˈluː.ʃən/

revolution noun (POLITICS)

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B2 [ C or U ]

a change in the way a country is governed, usually to a different political system and often using violence or war:

The French Revolution changed France from a monarchy to a republic.

The country seems to be heading toward revolution.

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It was very difficult to encapsulate the story of the revolution in a single one-hour documentary.
Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the revolution.
He became a national hero for his part in the revolution.
The whole period leading up to the revolution is an interesting chapter in British history.
The bigger farms were parceled out after the revolution in 1973.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Taking action against people in power

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revolution noun (CHANGE)

B2 [ C ]

a very important change in the way that people do things:

a technological revolution

Penicillin produced a revolution in medicine.

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Trendspotter Faith Starr believes a revolution is going on in the world of conferencing.
The development of high-yield varieties of rice produced a revolution in the country's agriculture.
The new materials brought about a revolution in building technology.
The invention marked the beginning of a revolution in information technology.
The industrial revolution created an enormous increase in the production of many types of goods.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Change and changes

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revolution noun (CIRCULAR MOVEMENT)

[ S ]

a circular movement:

The revolution of Earth around the sun was proposed by Copernicus.

[ C ]

one complete circular movement of something, for example a wheel:

Engine speed can be measured in revolutions per minute (abbreviation rpm).

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Revolving, rotating and spinning

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(Definition of revolution from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

revolution | Intermediate English

revolution

noun [ C/U ]

/ˌrev·əˈlu·ʃən/

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social studies

a sudden and great change, esp. the violent change of a system of government:

[ U ] The country seems to be heading toward revolution.

[ C ] The discovery of penicillin produced a revolution in medicine.

a movement in a circle or curve around a central point:

[ C ] The moon makes one revolution around the earth in about 29.5 days.

(Definition of revolution from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

revolution | Business English

revolution

noun [ C ]

/ˌrevəlˈuːʃən/ us

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a big change or improvement in the way that something works or looks, or in the way that people do a particular activity:

a revolution in sth Facing up to climate change requires a revolution in business thinking.

an economic/technological/green revolution

the digital/internet/IT revolution

(Definition of revolution from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of revolution

revolution

We are going to continue our revolution until the end.

From Huffington Post

Education needs to keep up with the times, our current technological revolution.

From CNN

This was a big help to the revolution.

From Fast Company

So it will take a revolution -- not just in how we eat but how we live.

From The Atlantic

It became the story we told ourselves about the computing revolution.

From NPR

Still, the swiftness of the revolution has left many stunned.

From TIME

It's happening where the smartphone revolution has been going full bore for years.

From Ars Technica

You have talked about the need for a consumer health revolution to drive this change.

From The Atlantic

To express yourself, your hidden talents, your great potential, your thirst for freedom, that's the great revolution.

From San Francisco Chronicle

Join the ecosexual revolution and do it the only way you should -- the green way.

From Huffington Post

That is a revolution that will change the world!

From National Geographic

Those early months of the revolution were tumultuous indeed.

From Huffington Post

Hang onto it, because the revolution will take time to catch on.

From TIME

This second energy revolution is also ameliorating the impact of the first.

From Foreign Policy

We have returned to square zero of our revolution, to start it again in the right way.

From Foreign Policy

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with revolution

revolution

These are words often used in combination with revolution.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

agricultural revolution

The 10,000-year-old agricultural revolution continues.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

armed revolution

He may demand its overthrow by armed revolution.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

bloodless revolution

A bloodless revolution took place between 1945 and 1951.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

See all collocations with revolution

What is the pronunciation of revolution?

B2,B2

Translations of revolution

in Chinese (Traditional)

政治, （通常指改變政治體制的）革命, 變化…

in Chinese (Simplified)

政治, （通常指改变政治体制的）革命, 变化…

in Spanish

revolución, revolución [feminine, singular]…

in Portuguese

revolução, revolução [feminine], rotação [feminine]…

in more languages

in Marathi

in Japanese

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in German

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राज्यक्रांती, क्रांति…

（政治的な）革命, 改革, 画期的な出来事…

ihitlâl, devrim, büyük değişim…

révolution [feminine], tour [masculine], révolution…

revolució…

revolutie, ommekeer, omwenteling…

ஒரு நாடு நிர்வகிக்கப்படும் விதத்தில் மாற்றம், பொதுவாக வேறுபட்ட அரசியல் அமைப்புக்கு மற்றும் பெரும்பாலும் வன்முறை அல்லது போரைப் பயன்படுத்துதல், மக்கள் விஷயங்களைச் செய்யும் விதத்தில் மிக முக்கியமான மாற்றம்…

(प्रायः सरकार बदलने हेतु युद्ध या हिंसा द्वारा आई एक) क्रांति, (चीज़ों को करने के तरीकों में आई) क्रांति…

ક્રાંતિ, સામાન્ય રીતે સરકાર બદલવા માટે યુદ્ધ અથવા હિંસા દ્વારા લાવવામાં આવેલી ક્રાંતિ, સ્તુઓ કરવાની રીતમાં ક્રાંતિ લાવી…

revolution, gennemgribende forandring, omdrejning…

revolution, omvälvning, rotation…

pemberontakan, penukaran sepenuh, pusingan penuh…

die Revolution, die Umwälzung, die Umdrehung…