invoice

American  

[in-vois] / ˈɪn vɔɪs /

noun

• invoices
  plural

1. an itemized bill for goods sold or services provided, containing individual prices, the total charge, and the terms.

2. the merchandise or shipment itself.

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verb (used with object)

• invoices,
  present (3rd person singular)
• invoiced,
  past participle,  past
• invoicing
  present participle

1. to present an invoice to.

   The manufacturer invoiced us for six whiteboards.

2. to present an invoice for.

   five chairs invoiced and shipped last month.

verb (used without object)

• invoices,
  present (3rd person singular)
• invoiced,
  past participle,  past
• invoicing
  present participle

1. to prepare or submit an invoice.

2. to have a value if or when inventoried.

   The merchandise in stock invoiced far more than we expected.

invoice British  

/ ˈɪnvɔɪs /

noun

1. a document issued by a seller to a buyer listing the goods or services supplied and stating the sum of money due

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verb

1. (tr)

   1. to present (a customer) with an invoice

   2. to list (merchandise sold) on an invoice

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• uninvoiced
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• invoices
  plural

Participles

• invoicing
  present
• invoiced
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• invoice
  simple
• invoices
  simple
• have invoiced
  perfect
• has invoiced
  perfect
• am invoicing
  progressive
• are invoicing
  progressive
• is invoicing
  progressive
• have been invoicing
  perfect progressive
• has been invoicing
  perfect progressive

Past

• invoiced
  simple
• had invoiced
  perfect
• was invoicing
  progressive
• were invoicing
  progressive
• had been invoicing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will invoice
  simple
• will have invoiced
  perfect
• will be invoicing
  progressive
• will have been invoicing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of invoice

First recorded in 1550–60; variant of invoyes, plural of obsolete invoy, variant of envoy ¹

Explanation

An invoice is an itemized statement of the money that's owed for goods or services. If you buy books online, they will usually arrive with an invoice telling what books you bought and how much they cost. Invoice comes from the French verb envoyer, which means to send, and "send" is a verb often used with the noun invoice, like when the online bookstore sends you an invoice. The same sense occurs when you use invoice as a verb. If you tell someone to invoice you for work they've done, you're asking them to send you a bill.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

invoice invoices invoiced invoicing

Last year, Lee got an unexpected invoice from the Merced Irrigation-Urban Groundwater Sustainability Agency.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

Because of that, they are “no longer interchangeable,” he said, which has led Nvidia and other hyperscalers to buy memory on a longer-term contract basis instead of buying on invoice.

From MarketWatch ● May 27, 2026

Ofsted said it was not aware of this but said constructing a different invoice would not change the illegality of the provision.

From BBC ● May 20, 2026

As promised, he got the invoice by email the next day but didn’t see a link to pay.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2026

Add this, my lad,’ he said, handing Johnny an invoice he held in his hand.

From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes

The simple fact is that U.S. tariff invoices issued by the Treasury Department are sent to the U.S. businesses that import the foreign products.

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026

To avoid raising red flags at the banks, A7 uses artificial intelligence to create fake invoices that obscure the real purpose of the transactions, OSC said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026

“We’ve seen layoffs and furloughs, and we will see a lot more of that if these invoices aren’t paid.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026

Once in, they can spot legitimate email threads about invoices and business matters.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

Kathy and Ambata were sending out invoices when Ambata said something Kathy couldn’t understand.

From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers

The city of Mesa unsuccessfully invoiced the campaign $64,477.56 for an October 2018 rally.

From Salon ● Nov. 4, 2024

An artist who offered me $14 an hour to be her assistant, then forgot to pay me when I invoiced.

From Slate ● May 18, 2024

Prosecutors allege that the firm invoiced UMP rather than the campaign.

From Reuters ● Nov. 24, 2023

By mid-August, the backlog had reached $90 million, or around two-thirds of the total amount invoiced since the launch, according to UW officials.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 13, 2023

In December 1511 she made an order for a set of stringed instruments for the Ferrara court which, Holman convincingly suggests, were ‘new design’ violins, invoiced to a maestro Sebastian of Verona.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Self-employed people might postpone year-end invoicing to the following year.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 15, 2026

The fintech company, which was founded in Australia in 2015, runs a financial platform that uses artificial intelligence to help businesses manage multicurrency accounts, process international payments, and run invoicing and expense systems.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026

While official dollar reserve holdings remain relatively stable, trade invoicing is gradually shifting toward other currencies, signaling incremental diversification in global payments.

From Barron's ● Mar. 4, 2026

But we won’t be trusted to take that on unless we can handle our procurement and our contracting and our invoicing.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 30, 2023

Very slowly he retraced his steps until he stood outside the glass-enclosed cage where twelve of the hardest-worked clerks in London bent over their ledgers and invoicing.

From The Lighted Way by E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim