invent
verb (used with object)
to originate or create as a product of one's own ingenuity, experimentation, or contrivance.
were inventing
-
past progressiveof invent.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
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.
It also tried to ensure they were inventing medicines rather than soap and to filter out anything predicted to be toxic to humans.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2025
The behavior spread so far so quickly that scientists considered it unlikely that individual birds across a continent were inventing this trick on their own.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2024
“When you think about the ’50s and the ’60s, when we were inventing all these new things, there’s a piece of American history in there.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2024
When I was out working on the equipment and designing things, I worked with brilliant mechanical people that had high school graduates that were inventing all kinds of mechanical equipment.
From Salon ● Nov. 8, 2023
In effect, the leadership of the revolutionary generation lacked a vocabulary adequate to describe the politics they were inventing.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
