inventor
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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.
According to the Farmers Weekly magazine, Kinston was a "talented amateur inventor".
From BBC • May 27, 2026
It's billed as the next generation of astronaut exercise equipment for long space missions by its inventor, John Kennett, who says his small piece of equipment can handle 300 exercises.
From BBC • May 22, 2026
At this week’s The Future of Everything conference—the Journal’s flagship live event—the inventor of the Roomba unveiled his next chapter: a soft, four-legged robot that’s designed to form an emotional bond with its owner.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 8, 2026
For more than 500 years, Leonardo da Vinci has been admired as a brilliant artist, inventor, and thinker whose talents seemed far ahead of his time.
From Science Daily • May 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
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.
