inventor
Americannoun
-
inventors
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of inventor
From Latin, dating back to 1500–10; see origin at invent, -tor
Explanation
The person who first comes up with a brand new idea or thing is its inventor. A woman named Mary Anderson, for example, is credited with being the inventor of the windshield wiper blade for cars. Lewis Latimer invented many things during his lifetime, and drafted the patent for the telephone (with fellow inventor Alexander Graham Bell). Oddly enough, Latimer's first work as an inventor was developing a restroom for train cars, in 1874. In the 1940s, actress Hedy Lamarr was the inventor of a communications technology that eventually made wireless technology, including cell phones, possible. In Latin, inventor means "contriver, author, or discoverer."
Vocabulary lists containing inventor
Business, List 1
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -er, -or
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for September 25–October 5, 2021
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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:
Almost a century ago, County Down-born inventor Harry Ferguson transformed the farming industry when he developed the linkage system still used in tractors today.
From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2026
Perloff said Balwani called Holmes “the most important inventor of our times.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026
Tech enthusiasts are eager for us to merge with machines: Ray Kurzweil, the futurist and inventor, thinks that nanotech brain implants will make us godlike.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
It’s not just the investor; it’s the inventor.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026
Rather, he was something of a poet, an inventor of on-the-spot ballads called corridos, and at one time he had been able to read and write in both English and Spanish.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
Here’s what she’s learned: When technology doesn’t graduate beyond the demo stage, the problem is often that inventors and engineers are so enamored with their own creation that they assume it will find a home.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Svensson and Coassolo are inventors on patents regarding BRP peptides for metabolic disorders.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 24, 2026
Both countries lay claim to being the inventors of the sport and in the early days the fixture was dominated by the Scots, who popularised the passing game.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
Surely, the inventors of the game had won 10-0—not lost to a bunch of relative amateurs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
Does the history of technology depend on nothing more than accidents of the birthplaces of a few inventors?
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
