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:
As for crypto, he said the crowd that brought so much excitement and passion to digital assets is leaving, too—just as the suits from Wall Street and the hedge-fund world invade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026
Why invade some place if you basically already control it?
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2026
If China does invade, Lin says he would “fight tooth and nail” to defend the island.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
"Imagine you're a Martian, you're just about to invade Earth, you're hiding in the moon... and suddenly you meet the martial music of the bagpipe."
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
Nhamo worried that something might be tempted to invade from the large island.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
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
If the United States invades Greenland, she will flee her home with her daughter.
From Barron's ● Jan. 17, 2026
The afterglow of aristocratic grace, the poet noted, was obscured by the “rising tide of democracy, which invades and levels all things.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 15, 2026
Civil rights groups and privacy campaigners have consistently opposed LFRT, saying it invades people's privacy, and carries an unacceptable risk of misidentification.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2025
A sorrow as black as the night outside invades me, and I feel my throat clamping.
From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
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
"That man that invaded my stage should never have been there three or four more times," she said.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 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
Stagg played a crucial advisory role when US General Dwight D Eisenhower invaded Normandy, laying the foundations for the Allied victory in World War Two.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
Then, as the hot pains invaded her body, she shouted and thrashed and flailed, shrieking and kicking.
From "The Midwife's Apprentice" by Karen Cushman
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
He warned Putin against invading Ukraine, citing intelligence the U.S. collected about his plans for an all-out assault.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 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
He still gets emotional recalling the remarkable reception he received landing on “Pluribus,” his first American set, to play one of 13 individuals in the world immune to an invading hive mind.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
“You know, where Horatius and his two friends defended the city from an invading army? Now, there was a brave Roman!”
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
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.
