invade
Americanverb (used with object)
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invades,
present (3rd person singular)
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invaded,
past participle, past
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invading
present participle
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to enter forcefully as an enemy; go into with hostile intent.
Germany invaded Poland in 1939.
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to enter like an enemy.
Locusts invaded the fields.
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to enter as if to take possession.
to invade a neighbor's home.
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to enter and affect injuriously or destructively, as disease.
viruses that invade the bloodstream.
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to intrude upon.
to invade the privacy of a family.
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to encroach or infringe upon.
to invade the rights of citizens.
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to permeate.
The smell of baking invades the house.
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to penetrate; spread into or over.
The population boom has caused city dwellers to invade the suburbs.
verb (used without object)
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invades,
present (3rd person singular)
-
invaded,
past participle, past
-
invading
present participle
verb
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to enter (a country, territory, etc) by military force
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(tr) to occupy in large numbers; overrun; infest
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(tr) to trespass or encroach upon (privacy, etc)
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(tr) to enter and spread throughout, esp harmfully; pervade
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(of plants, esp weeds) to become established in (a place to which they are not native)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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invadernoun
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reinvadeverb (used with object)
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invadableadjective
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quasi-invadedadjective
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uninvadableadjective
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uninvadedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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invadesimple
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invadessimple
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have invadedperfect
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has invadedperfect
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am invadingprogressive
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are invadingprogressive
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is invadingprogressive
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have been invadingperfect progressive
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has been invadingperfect progressive
Past
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invadedsimple
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had invadedperfect
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was invadingprogressive
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were invadingprogressive
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had been invadingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of invade
First recorded in 1485–95; from Latin invādere, from in- in- 2 + vādere “to go, walk” ( see also wade)
Explanation
When you Invade, you aggressively take over or occupy a place. If a country's leader wants to gain more land, the military might invade a neighboring country. Not everything that invades is militaristic. Some things that invade are cultural, such as the phenomena of young, stylish people moving into a neighborhood that had never been thought of as cool before. In an instant, new restaurants and shops catering to the newcomers open and soon the area is overrun with people wearing, say, skinny jeans and complicated eyewear. Natives to the area lament, "This place has been invaded by hipsters."
Vocabulary lists containing invade
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 12–15
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Bronx Masquerade
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Beowulf vocabulary
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Upholstered furniture, cabinets and vanities from the north weren’t about to invade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
The latest discovery to invade my algorithms arrived when Claude took a stab at a tantalizing math problem.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Constitutional privacy is not lost because the government chooses to invade it one fragment at a time.
From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2026
In 1989, a much larger operation - Operation Just Cause - saw thousands of US troops invade Panama to topple and detain the country's then-leader, Manuel Noriega.
From BBC ● May 21, 2026
“You’re asking me to invade the embassy of a foreign government because you felt a hole in the astral waves. What kind of evidence is that?”
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
This sharp, darkly comic film follows a Lithuanian couple that splits up just as Russia invades Ukraine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
“One doesn’t have the right to express themselves in a violent way, that invades someone else’s place of tranquility,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026
It happens when an infection invades the brain, with symptoms including a high temperature, fever, confusion, headaches or seizures.
From BBC ● Apr. 12, 2026
Researchers led by Tajie Harris, PhD, set out to understand how the immune system responds when Toxoplasma invades CD8+ T cells, which are specialized immune cells responsible for killing infected cells.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 16, 2026
Phnom Penh city wakes early to take advantage of the cool morning breeze before the sun breaks through the haze and invades the country with sweltering heat.
From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung
Ever since Iraq invaded Kuwait, curious motorists passing through the Mojave Desert have stopped to ask the way to Bagdad, the California ghost town named in the 1800s for the Middle Eastern capital.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
German troops invaded Lithuania in the 1940s and are now back on Lithuanian soil, this time by invitation, to bolster that country's defences against the threat from the east.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
In early 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine and with the pandemic easing, Poland said it could no longer afford to take delivery of 63 million more doses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026
Overgrown foliage has invaded the front yard of the Silver Lake home that Vela Gonzalez used to maintain.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
On June 22, 1941, Germany double-crossed the Russians and invaded its former ally.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
By placing bets on acquiring a full fleet of uncrewed systems, including aerial and undersea drones, Taiwan hopes to build defensive capabilities intended to make its far more powerful adversary think twice about invading.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Although Perez’s livestream proceeded for around 15 minutes before it was shut down, screenshots and clips rocketed across the internet, invading countless social media feeds.
From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026
Jenner hates the paparazzi for invading her privacy but sees no moral quandary in collecting a check from Mark Zuckerberg, who wants to invade everyone’s privacy.
From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2026
When arginine is scarce, cells struggle to produce MHC-1, a protein that helps alert the immune system to threats such as mutated cells and invading viruses.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 3, 2026
For a while we traveled with three other refugees from the invading army, a Dinka woman and her two daughters.
From "Lost Boy, Lost Girl" by John Bul Dau
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
