invade
Americanverb (used with object)
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invades,
present (3rd person singular)
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invaded,
past participle, past
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invading
present participle
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to enter forcefully as an enemy; go into with hostile intent.
Germany invaded Poland in 1939.
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to enter like an enemy.
Locusts invaded the fields.
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to enter as if to take possession.
to invade a neighbor's home.
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to enter and affect injuriously or destructively, as disease.
viruses that invade the bloodstream.
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to intrude upon.
to invade the privacy of a family.
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to encroach or infringe upon.
to invade the rights of citizens.
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to permeate.
The smell of baking invades the house.
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to penetrate; spread into or over.
The population boom has caused city dwellers to invade the suburbs.
verb (used without object)
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invades,
present (3rd person singular)
-
invaded,
past participle, past
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invading
present participle
verb
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to enter (a country, territory, etc) by military force
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(tr) to occupy in large numbers; overrun; infest
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(tr) to trespass or encroach upon (privacy, etc)
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(tr) to enter and spread throughout, esp harmfully; pervade
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(of plants, esp weeds) to become established in (a place to which they are not native)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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invadernoun
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reinvadeverb (used with object)
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invadableadjective
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quasi-invadedadjective
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uninvadableadjective
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uninvadedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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invadesimple
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invadessimple
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have invadedperfect
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has invadedperfect
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am invadingprogressive
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are invadingprogressive
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is invadingprogressive
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have been invadingperfect progressive
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has been invadingperfect progressive
Past
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invadedsimple
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had invadedperfect
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was invadingprogressive
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were invadingprogressive
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had been invadingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of invade
First recorded in 1485–95; from Latin invādere, from in- in- 2 + vādere “to go, walk” ( see also wade)
Explanation
When you Invade, you aggressively take over or occupy a place. If a country's leader wants to gain more land, the military might invade a neighboring country. Not everything that invades is militaristic. Some things that invade are cultural, such as the phenomena of young, stylish people moving into a neighborhood that had never been thought of as cool before. In an instant, new restaurants and shops catering to the newcomers open and soon the area is overrun with people wearing, say, skinny jeans and complicated eyewear. Natives to the area lament, "This place has been invaded by hipsters."
Vocabulary lists containing invade
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 12–15
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Bronx Masquerade
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Beowulf vocabulary
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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:
Upholstered furniture, cabinets and vanities from the north weren’t about to invade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
Why invade some place if you basically already control it?
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2026
Jenner hates the paparazzi for invading her privacy but sees no moral quandary in collecting a check from Mark Zuckerberg, who wants to invade everyone’s privacy.
From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2026
"Imagine you're a Martian, you're just about to invade Earth, you're hiding in the moon... and suddenly you meet the martial music of the bagpipe."
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
Anyone who might wish to invade that dominion from abroad would be more hesitant; so that living right there, it is only with the greatest difficulty that the prince can lose it.
From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli
This sharp, darkly comic film follows a Lithuanian couple that splits up just as Russia invades Ukraine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Jurgen Klopp started his reign as Germany's head coach by threatening to quit if the media invades his family's privacy.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
“One doesn’t have the right to express themselves in a violent way, that invades someone else’s place of tranquility,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026
Researchers led by Tajie Harris, PhD, set out to understand how the immune system responds when Toxoplasma invades CD8+ T cells, which are specialized immune cells responsible for killing infected cells.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 16, 2026
Breton spring, and a great onslaught of damp invades the coast.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
In early 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine and with the pandemic easing, Poland said it could no longer afford to take delivery of 63 million more doses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026
Stagg played a crucial advisory role when US General Dwight D Eisenhower invaded Normandy, laying the foundations for the Allied victory in World War Two.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
Is a subject eager to publicize a political struggle prepared for the risk that her personal privacy will be invaded in the process?
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
It documents the last time England was successfully invaded and the events that created the modern monarchy, and provides an unparalleled vision of 11th-century life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
All my life, the pageant has invaded every facet of my world, except for this room.
From "Dumplin'" by Julie Murphy
Taipei hopes to build defensive capabilities that will make its far more powerful adversary think twice about invading.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
Although Perez’s livestream proceeded for around 15 minutes before it was shut down, screenshots and clips rocketed across the internet, invading countless social media feeds.
From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026
When arginine is scarce, cells struggle to produce MHC-1, a protein that helps alert the immune system to threats such as mutated cells and invading viruses.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 3, 2026
He still gets emotional recalling the remarkable reception he received landing on “Pluribus,” his first American set, to play one of 13 individuals in the world immune to an invading hive mind.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
The dodo, moas, and perhaps the giants of Australia/New Guinea had the misfortune suddenly to be confronted, without any evolutionary preparation, by invading modern humans possessing fully developed hunting skills.
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.
