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:
"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
Constitutional privacy is not lost because the government chooses to invade it one fragment at a time.
From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2026
All of the risk stemmed from Hitler’s decision to break his nonaggression pact with Stalin and invade the western part of the U.S.S.R. in June 1941.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
Their work helps answer longstanding questions about how these viruses launch replication once they invade a cell.
From Science Daily ● May 13, 2026
Tentacles is my term—the Tentacles are the evil tasks that invade my life.
From "It’s Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini
A rowdy card of mixed-martial arts invades the South Lawn.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 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
If the United States invades Greenland, she will flee her home with her daughter.
From Barron's ● Jan. 17, 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
I feel that squeeze of fear on my heart that invades on occasion, whenever “Mom” and “guy” are in the same sentence.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
Fedorova, 45, is the former head of the French arm of RT, which was banned in France after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
Many of the prisoners had been captured more than two years earlier when the Japanese first invaded the Philippines and had survived the infamous Bataan Death March.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
In court, the state and cities argued that Operation Metro Surge had invaded state and municipal authority.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
Cambridgeshire Constabulary says it was "very stretched" on the January day last year when Mathew Latta's farm was invaded, and the force says it did not respond the way it would have wanted.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
The Russians are taking part in the campaign; yesterday they started their offensive near Vitebsk, exactly three years to the day that the Germans invaded Russia.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
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
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
Translated into constitutional terms, Minnesota argued that the surge violated federalist principles by invading the state’s reserved police powers: the broad authority to govern public health, safety, welfare, and order.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
Reviews were overwhelmingly positive for the sequel about a tablet invading the world of Jessie, Woody and Buzz Lightyear.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
No sooner had she spoken, than Delia slipped out of Papá’s grasp, and both Delia and Velia threw themselves on the invading sisters, who were knocked to the floor.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
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.
