inventor
Americannoun
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:
The so-called Gravity Reactor is the creation of Liz Muller and her father, Richard Muller, emeritus professor of physics at University of California, Berkeley and an inventor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Her name as a possible presidential nominee was first put forward in an open letter signed by sixteen prominent Hungarians, including the inventor of the Rubik's Cube, Erno Rubik.
From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 2026
He was an accomplished artist, inventor and entrepreneur and the accidental inventor of the modern blast-furnace brick.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
The floor also highlights science at the White House, including an “extreme marshmallow cannon” brought there by a 14-year-old inventor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026
That makes it difficult for an inventor to foresee whether his or her awful prototype might eventually find a use and thus warrant more time and expense to develop it.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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
Drs. Michelle Bradbury and Ulrich Wiesner are inventors on patents related to the technology described in this study.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
Airship captains and Victorian inventors gather Down Under.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 2, 2026
Siminoff said it doesn’t hurt that Mahan speaks the same language as many tech leaders, who are mostly just “pragmatic inventors and entrepreneurs” who want California’s leader to be “principled in thinking about fixing things.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026
In art, as in language, we are above all inventors of symbols that convey complex thoughts in new ways.
From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson
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.
