invert

American  

[in-vurt, in-vurt] / ɪnˈvɜrt, ˈɪn vɜrt /

verb (used with object)

• inverts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• inverted,
  past participle,  past
• inverting
  present participle

1. to turn upside down.

2. to reverse in position, order, direction, or relationship.

3. to turn or change to the opposite or contrary, as in nature, bearing, or effect.

   to invert a process.

4. to turn inward or back upon itself.

5. to turn inside out.

6. Chemistry. to subject to a reaction in which a starting material of one optical configuration forms a product of the opposite configuration.

7. Music. to subject to musical inversion, the transposition between the upper voice part and the lower.

8. Phonetics. to articulate as a retroflex vowel.

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verb (used without object)

• inverts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• inverted,
  past participle,  past
• inverting
  present participle

1. Chemistry. to undergo a reaction in which a starting material of one optical configuration forms a product of the opposite configuration.

adjective

1. Chemistry. subjected to a reaction in which a starting material of one optical configuration forms a product of the opposite configuration.

noun

1. a person or thing that is reversed in position, changed to the contrary, or turned upside down, inside out, or inward.

2. (in plumbing) that portion of the interior of a drain or sewer pipe where the liquid is deepest.

3. a U-shaped arch or vault, having the opposite vertical orientation compared to a traditional arch or vault.

4. Philately. a two-colored postage stamp with all or part of the central design printed upside down in relation to the inscription.

5. Psychiatry. (no longer in technical use)

   1. a gay person.

   2. a person whose behavior is considered nonnormative for their assigned sex, historically involving both gender non-conforming or transgender expression and gay or lesbian sexual orientation.

6. Disparaging and Offensive. anyone whose sexuality or gender expression is regarded as strange or unnatural, especially a gay or transgender person.

7. Informal. (especially among aquarists) invertebrate.

   My invert tank is mostly sea slugs, but I bought a couple of shrimp recently also.

invert British  

verb

1. to turn or cause to turn upside down or inside out

2. (tr) to reverse in effect, sequence, direction, etc

3. (tr) phonetics

   1. to turn (the tip of the tongue) up and back

   2. to pronounce (a speech sound) by retroflexion

4. logic to form the inverse of a categorial proposition

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noun

1. psychiatry

   1. a person who adopts the role of the opposite sex

   2. another word for homosexual

2. architect

   1. the lower inner surface of a drain, sewer, etc Compare soffit

   2. an arch that is concave upwards, esp one used in foundations

Synonym Usage

See reverse.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• invertibility
  noun
• invertible
  adjective
• noninverted
  adjective
• uninverted
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• inverting
  present
• inverted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• invert
  simple
• inverts
  simple
• have inverted
  perfect
• has inverted
  perfect
• am inverting
  progressive
• are inverting
  progressive
• is inverting
  progressive
• have been inverting
  perfect progressive
• has been inverting
  perfect progressive

Past

• inverted
  simple
• had inverted
  perfect
• was inverting
  progressive
• were inverting
  progressive
• had been inverting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will invert
  simple
• will have inverted
  perfect
• will be inverting
  progressive
• will have been inverting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of invert

First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin invertere “to turn upside down or inside out,” equivalent to in- “in” + vertere “to turn”; see in- ², verse

Explanation

When you invert something, you turn it upside down, whether it’s an idea or a test you place face-down on your desk when you are finished. Invert comes from the Latin word invertere, which means "to turn." For example, you might invert a cake pan, turning it upside down on a plate in order to remove the cake. Or if you have a long-standing belief, say, that cats make bad pets, spending time with a really great cat may make you turn that belief upside down, inverting it. And you might even get a cat of your own!

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

invert inverts inverted inverting

This savage, amoral and unfeeling Robin Hood has been written to invert everything modern fans like about him.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026

But to invert the old saw, the shoe doesn’t always fit.

From Slate ● Jun. 5, 2026

When demand for “out of the money” calls is much stronger than demand for “at the money” calls, the so-called “call skew” tends to invert.

From MarketWatch ● May 19, 2026

Buffett would later invert that payment model, in what became the defining pursuit of his investment career—capitalizing on the insurance industry.

From Barron's ● Dec. 12, 2025

“We were all trying to solve this quadric the same way, and then I realized we just had to invert the way we were looking at it.”

From "Tradition" by Brendan Kiely

“Through 2024 and 2025, part of the case for Bitcoin as an institutional allocation rested on an easing cycle ahead; a forecast of tightening inverts that premise,” said Deutsche Bank research analyst Marion Laboure.

From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026

Ecuador left-back Piero Hincapie inverts into central midfield.

From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2026

Trading the term structure: The VIX futures term structure inverts in times of fear and uncertainty — that is, the front-month VIX futures begin to trade at higher prices than the second-month futures.

From MarketWatch ● Mar. 12, 2026

It inverts the First Amendment’s core purpose: protecting speech that persuades, speech that matters, speech people actually hear.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026

The deft inverts the usual ordering: the new information is thrust into the spotlight early, and the given information, which serves as its background, comes at the end.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

Baillie says he learned the inverted beer-drinking stunt from his ex-father-in-law, who sounds super cool and nonjudgmental.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

Researchers describe this pattern as an inverted U shaped response.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 2, 2026

Discovery — and inverted the entire meaning of that tradition to mark the adversarial relationship between the press and power.

From Salon ● Jun. 1, 2026

An "inverted winger", he attacks from wide on the right flank but then cuts inside, using body feints and rapid shifts in pace to dribble past defenders and shoot with his stronger left foot.

From BBC ● May 22, 2026

“It stinks of Sport,” said Mordred in inverted commas, “and the Done Thing and the Best People. Let’s go to the garden.”

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

That’s a way of inverting your intuitive, emotional response to a declining market.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026

While our population pyramid is inverting, people who reach age 65 are now expected to live for at least another 20 years.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 25, 2025

To waste your one good death,” he thinks, inverting Mary Oliver’s famous line about putting our one wild precious life to use.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2024

Season 4 circles back to the first’s high notes, inverting nearly everything about it.

From Salon ● Jan. 14, 2024

That’s why guidelines on how to avoid legalese and other turbid professional styles call for using first- and second-person pronouns, inverting passives into actives, and letting verbs be verbs rather than zombie nouns.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker