Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To produce or contrive (something previously unknown) by the use of ingenuity or imagination.
- v. To make up; fabricate: invent a likely excuse.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To come upon; light upon; meet with; find.
- To find out by original study or contrivance; create by a new use or combination of means; devise the form, construction, composition, method, or principle of.
- In general, to produce by contrivance; fabricate; concoet; devise: as, to invent the plot of a story; to invent an excuse or a falsehood.
- Synonyms 2 and 3. Discover, Invent. See discover and invention.
Wiktionary
- v. To design a new process or mechanism.
- v. To create something fictional for a particular purpose.
- v. obsolete To come upon; to find; to find out; to discover.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. obsolete To come or light upon; to meet; to find.
- v. To discover, as by study or inquiry; to find out; to devise; to contrive or produce for the first time; -- applied commonly to the discovery of some serviceable mode, instrument, or machine.
- v. To frame by the imagination; to fabricate mentally; to forge; -- in a good or a bad sense
WordNet 3.0
- v. come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or principle) after a mental effort
- v. make up something artificial or untrue
Etymologies
- From Middle English inventen, from Old French inventer, from Latin inventus, perfect passive participle of inveniō ("come upon, meet with, find, discover"), from in ("in, on") + veniō ("come"); see venture. Compare advent, covent, event, prevent, etc. (Wiktionary)
- Latin invenīre, invent-, to find : in-, on, upon; see in-2 + venīre, to come; see gwā- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“That is, critics who use the term invent the boundaries that are supposedly being "transgressed.”
“To invent a Latin word which ought to have been invented before my time, 'non interrumpunt at _interrupturiunt_.”
“To invent is a game and it is really fun," he says.”
The Wall Street Journal: French Master Chef Reinvents His Art
“There is no need in invent projects for us to play together like children.”
Is Space Exploration Worth the Cost? A Freakonomics Quorum - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com
“Framing the argument as though there was no difference between the 1-Click patent and the patent for a new molecule that cost a billion dollars to invent is a deceptive practice. blog comments powered by Disqus”
“They also missed some good ones: didn't Heinlein invent the waldo and the waterbed?”
“I have, therefore, listed Dr. Samuel Johnson in some of my memorandums of the principal planters and favourers of the enclosures, under a name which I took the liberty to invent from the Greek, Papadendrion.”
“If we can demonstrate the fact that we call invent anything, mould a piece of statuary or write a book as well as anyone, then we shall do more to solve the negro problem than all preaching and complaining can do?”
“I have, therefore, listed Dr. Samuel Johnson in some of my memorandums of the principal planters and favourers of the enclosures, under a name which I took the liberty to invent from the Greek, Papadendrion [299].”
“I have, therefore, listed Dr. Samuel Johnson in some of my memorandums of the principal planters and favourers of the enclosures, under a name which I took the liberty to invent from the Greek, _Papadendrion_ [299].”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘invent’.
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steffany(grade 2)
accident, agree, arrive, astronomy, attention, award, aware, balance, banner, bare, base, beach and 127 more...
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jackgrade2
accident, agree, arrive, astronomy, atlas, attention, award, aware, balance, banner, bare, base and 127 more...
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EN - eloquence in public speaking
Key words from "The Training of a Public Speaker" by Grenville Kleiser (New York and London, 1920)
beget, imago, approbation, orator, peroration, Cicero, eloquence, elocution, rhetoric, premeditate, plead, Isocrates and 264 more...
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Verbs
edit, delete, get, take, abide, be, catch, wash, watch, fly, eat, sleep and 33 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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sarahlena's list
Vocabularies
knee, admire, ambition, bend, experience, grow up, memory, opportunity, proud, regret, success, invent and 49 more...
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go-come words
come, welcome, venire, advent, venue, adventitious, adventure, avenue, circumvent, contravene, convene, convenient and 87 more...
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TT1 Lesson 8
sedan, sensible, imagine, race, endurance, Elantra, over, through, time, by, make sense, automobile and 15 more...
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bananahands's list
of, musculature, yam, invent, prototype, filbert, conveyor, duces, eager, bastard, spirits
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ashtonhaley's Words
contrapposto, vox populi, unabashed, convivial, quagmire, insurgence, altruism, alchemy, think, invent, aesthetic, innovate and 43 more...
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Find
Words meaning find.
Tweets
Looking for tweets for invent.
bilby I know. It's just that I feel like an extra in it :-( May 14, 2009
sarahlena you create your own story May 13, 2009