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:
Some clones develop changes that help them withstand cancer treatments, while others become better equipped to invade surrounding tissues and spread to other parts of the body.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2026
An epic tale inspired by Hitler's indecision about whether to invade Britain, Archer poured everything into it.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
Why invade some place if you basically already control it?
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 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
If the wind should shift, the fire “might invade the South Division itself, and come up under the impulsion of that fierce wind, and where should we all be then?”
From "The Great Fire" by Jim Murphy
A rowdy card of mixed-martial arts invades the South Lawn.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
The current odds External link that the U.S. invades Greenland in 2026, acquires Greenland in 2026, or acquires Greenland in 2027 are 10%, 23%, and 18%, respectively.
From Barron's ● Jan. 14, 2026
In an infected person, the fungus invades the body and causes symptoms such as fever, chills, sepsis and organ failure.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2025
"We knew that Salmonella invades the small intestine, although it is not its primary site of replication. The colon is," said the lead author of the study Andreas Bäumler.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 15, 2024
A sorrow as black as the night outside invades me, and I feel my throat clamping.
From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
The monarch has long been overshadowed by more glamorous ancient rulers, notably William the Conqueror, a Norman born in France who invaded England in 1066.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 8, 2026
The UK has a longstanding policy not to have direct, bilateral engagement with Russian ministers since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
Jon Sandison, a high school history teacher and Shetland tour guide, said there were real concerns that Shetland could be attacked after Germany invaded Norway in 1940, during World War Two.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026
The truce, which covers the Kherson region only and began early Tuesday, marks the longest pause in fighting between Russia and Ukraine anywhere on the front line since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022.
From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2026
The next year, the rally was canceled when Germany invaded Poland.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Ukraine -- which for more than four and a half years has resisted a far larger invading army at a huge human cost -- has ruled out such a withdrawal.
From Barron's ● Nov. 10, 2026
They identified how these proteins recognize invading pathogens and demonstrated that they can be modified to detect multiple fungal threats.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2026
When neutrophils encounter pathogens, they can release toxic substances and even destroy themselves, spilling long strands of biological material that form web-like traps around invading microbes.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 3, 2026
Taipei hopes to build defensive capabilities that will make its far more powerful adversary think twice about invading.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
From those nuclear areas, hunter-gatherers of some neighboring areas learned food production, and peoples of other neighboring areas were replaced by invading food producers from the nuclear areas—again at widely differing times.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
