invent
verb (used with object)
to originate or create as a product of one's own ingenuity, experimentation, or contrivance.
invented
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past participleof invent.past participle
A verb form used in perfect and passive verb constructions and that can also function as a modifier.
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past tense formof invent.past tense
Used to describe completed actions or previous habitual actions.
inventverb (used with object)to originate or create as a product of one's own ingenuity, experimentation, or contrivance.
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.
As long ago as 2003, the Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom invented a thought experiment he dubbed a "paperclip maximiser", in which a superintelligent AI is told to manufacture as many paperclips as it can.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
Sister Schubert’s learned the harder lesson: once invented, we would prefer that you not take it away.
From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2026
In a nation that invented the likes of the frozen TV dinner, Childers is winding back the clock with technology that would be recognizable to farmers two millenia ago.
From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026
His 500-year history argues that America neither invented the dollar nor has ever fully controlled it.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
It was a game they had invented last year when they came here at summer’s end.
From "Earthquake Terror" by Peg Kehret
