invent

[in-vent]

verb (used with object)

1. to originate or create as a product of one's own ingenuity, experimentation, or contrivance.

   to invent the telegraph.

   Synonyms: contrive, devise

2. to produce or create with the imagination.

   to invent a story.

   Synonyms: conceive, imagine

3. to make up or fabricate (something fictitious or false).

   to invent excuses.

   Synonyms: concoct

4. Archaic.,  to come upon; find.

invent

/ ɪnˈvɛnt /

verb

1. to create or devise (new ideas, machines, etc)

2. to make up (falsehoods); fabricate

Other Word Forms

• inventible adjective
• inventable adjective
• outinvent verb (used with object)
• preinvent verb (used with object)
• self-invented adjective
• uninvented adjective
• well-invented adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of invent¹

First recorded in 1425–75; back formation from late Middle English invented (past participle) “found, discovered,” from Latin invent(us) “encountered” (past participle of invenīre “to come upon, encounter, find,” from in- in- ² + venīre “to come”; come ) + -ed ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of invent¹

C15: from Latin invenīre to find, come upon, from _in- ² + venīre to come

Synonym Study

See discover.

Example Sentences

Ms Lewis added that her father had partly been inspired their neighbour in Kings Heath, called Geoffrey Bull, who had invented the game Buccaneer about a decade earlier.

Read more on BBC

After 36 years as a computer programmer, he is now a referee in adventure racing—a job he largely invented.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

What’s even stranger about their absence from national relevance on the gridiron is that the Ivy League essentially invented big-time college football.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Toner-Rodgers said an old classmate worked at a large company in the field of materials science, a branch of engineering that invents novel forms of matter that can be used in technologies like biomedical devices.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Jay Parini, in his review, observed that the author of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was the man who “embodied, or perhaps invented, the American voice, with its granular lyricism and rough-edged, transgressive humor.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• bear 
• come up with 
• conceive 
• design 
• devise 
• discover 
• dream up 
• envision 
• fashion 
• find 
• forge 
• formulate 
• initiate 
• originate 
• produce