Other forms: involved, involving, involves
If something involves a thing, that thing is part of it — you cannot have the one without the other. Teaching involves marking, the recipe involves an hour of waiting, the trip involves two changes of train.
Involve also means to bring somebody into an activity: the school involves parents in the decision, and once you are in it, you are involved. Get involved with can mean helping out with a project or being in a relationship with a person, and only the situation tells you which. The noun is involvement, a heavier word for taking part: his involvement in the campaign. Watch the grammar — a job involves travelling, never involves to travel. And when a plan involves risk, nobody is being invited anywhere; the risk is simply built in.
1verbinvolveTo have something as a necessary part or result.
“The job involves a lot of travelling.”
2verbincludeTo bring someone into an activity or situation so that they take part in it.
“They involved the whole street in planning the party.”
3verbaffectTo affect or draw in the people or things named.
“The crash involved three cars and a bus.”
Involve came through Middle English involven, which meant to wrap, envelop or surround, from Latin involvere: in- plus volvo, 'to roll'. To involve something was to roll it up inside something else, and the same volvo sits inside revolve and volume. Behind all of them is the Proto-Indo-European root *welH-, 'to turn'.
Proto-Indo-European
*welH-
Latin
involvere
Old French
involver
Middle English
involven — to cloud; to encumber; to envelop, surround; to ponder (something); (reflexive) to concern (oneself) with something
English, today
involve
Built from
From Late Middle English involven (“to cloud; to encumber; to envelop, surround; to ponder (something); (reflexive) to concern (oneself) with something”)envolven, envoulven, borrowed from Old French involver, envoudre, or from its etymon Latin involvere, the present active infinitive of Latin involvō (“to roll to or upon something; to roll about; to coil or curl up; to cover; to envelop, wrap up; to overwhelm”), from in- + volvō (“to roll; to tumble”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European welH- (“to turn; to wind (turn coils)”)).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA