inventor
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
- inventress noun
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.
Woods would spend years in court in direct contention with the nation’s most formidable inventor, a struggle that would earn him the respect of the engineering community and, eventually, Edison himself.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 18, 2026
And a former lion from Longleat is being immortalised by an inventor who has recreated her paw print in tyre form, which could help improve the grip of Nasa's rover vehicles that work on Mars.
From BBC • Apr. 12, 2026
So even though he’s not the inventor, Henry Phillips will forever be remembered for the Phillips-head screw and screwdriver.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 12, 2026
She then co-founded Eastern Paper in Hartford, Conn., and kept working as an inventor.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026
Stamitz, who was born 120 kilometres from Prague and baptised Jan Stamic, has probably the greatest claim to being the inventor of the symphony as we know it, though posterity has largely forgotten him nonetheless.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
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.
