REVERSION

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does reversion mean? 

• REVERSION (noun)
  The noun REVERSION has 6 senses:

1. (law) an interest in an estate that reverts to the grantor (or his heirs) at the end of some period (e.g., the death of the grantee)

2. (genetics) a return to a normal phenotype (usually resulting from a second mutation)

3. a reappearance of an earlier characteristic

4. turning in the opposite direction

5. returning to a former state

6. a failure to maintain a higher state

  Familiarity information: REVERSION used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• REVERSION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(law) an interest in an estate that reverts to the grantor (or his heirs) at the end of some period (e.g., the death of the grantee)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Hypernyms ("reversion" is a kind of...):

interest; stake ((law) a right or legal share of something; a financial involvement with something)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "reversion"):

escheat (a reversion to the state (as the ultimate owner of property) in the absence of legal heirs)

Derivation:

reversionary (of or relating to or involving a reversion (especially a legal reversion))

Sense 2

Meaning:

(genetics) a return to a normal phenotype (usually resulting from a second mutation)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("reversion" is a kind of...):

chromosomal mutation; genetic mutation; mutation ((genetics) any event that changes genetic structure; any alteration in the inherited nucleic acid sequence of the genotype of an organism)

Domain category:

genetic science; genetics (the branch of biology that studies heredity and variation in organisms)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A reappearance of an earlier characteristic

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

atavism; reversion; throwback

Hypernyms ("reversion" is a kind of...):

recurrence; return (happening again (especially at regular intervals))

Sense 4

Meaning:

Turning in the opposite direction

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

reversal; reverse; reversion; turnabout; turnaround

Hypernyms ("reversion" is a kind of...):

change of direction; reorientation (the act of changing the direction in which something is oriented)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "reversion"):

about-face; about turn (act of pivoting 180 degrees, especially in a military formation)

u-turn (complete reversal of direction of travel)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Returning to a former state

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

regress; regression; retrogression; retroversion; reversion

Hypernyms ("reversion" is a kind of...):

reversal (a change from one state to the opposite state)

Derivation:

revert (go back to a previous state)

Sense 6

Meaning:

A failure to maintain a higher state

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

backsliding; lapse; lapsing; relapse; relapsing; reversion; reverting

Hypernyms ("reversion" is a kind of...):

failure (an act that fails)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "reversion"):

recidivism (habitual relapse into crime)

 Context examples 

This gene plays a role in cellular proliferation and may be involved in tumor reversion.

(AIM2 Gene, NCI Thesaurus)

“The next in reversion—you understand me?”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I dare say it was by some such device that poor Savage, who stood between this monster and a reversion, was done to death.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If he does, however, they will leave me in peace, which may be a decent equivalent for the reversion.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The soft palate, which has surfaces facing both the mouth and nasal cavity, stood out as the prime location for an abundance of virus containing the single genetic reversion that allows it to bind to mammalian-type SA.

(Researchers find role for soft palate in adaptation of transmissible influenza viruses, NIH)

Tom Bertram must have been thought pleasant, indeed, at any rate; he was the sort of young man to be generally liked, his agreeableness was of the kind to be oftener found agreeable than some endowments of a higher stamp, for he had easy manners, excellent spirits, a large acquaintance, and a great deal to say; and the reversion of Mansfield Park, and a baronetcy, did no harm to all this.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

“Mr. Copperfield,” said my mother, answering with some difficulty, “was so considerate and good as to secure the reversion of a part of it to me.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)