to originate or create as a product of one's own ingenuity, experimentation, or contrivance: to invent the telegraph.
to produce or create with the imagination: to invent a story.
to make up or fabricate (something fictitious or false): to invent excuses.
Archaic. to come upon; find.
Origin of invent
1425–75; late Middle English invented (past participle) found, discovered (see -ed2) <Latin inventus, past participle of invenīre to encounter, come upon, find, equivalent to in-in-2 + ven(īre) to come + -tus past participle suffix
SYNONYMS FOR invent
1 devise, contrive.
2 imagine, conceive.
3 concoct.
SEE SYNONYMS FOR invent ON THESAURUS.COM
synonym study for invent
1. See discover.
OTHER WORDS FROM invent
in·vent·i·ble,in·vent·a·ble,adjectiveout·in·vent,verb (used with object)pre·in·vent,verb (used with object)self-in·vent·ed,adjective
If putting the purpose of a business at the heart of corporate law does all of that, one might well wonder why we invented the corporation in the first place.
50 years later, Milton Friedman’s shareholder doctrine is dead|jakemeth|September 13, 2020|Fortune
In 1994, mathematician Peter Shor invented an algorithm, that if run on a sufficiently powerful quantum computer, would easily find these two primes.
Quantum computers threaten to end digital security. Here’s what’s being done about it|Jeremy Kahn|September 11, 2020|Fortune
It was a British TV company that wanted him to invent a language for monsters with no lips, just big teeth, in a new fantasy series, Beowulf.
Talking Is Throwing Fictional Worlds at One Another - Issue 89: The Dark Side|Kevin Berger|September 9, 2020|Nautilus
By September, the Justice Department drops all charges after it is revealed that the schematics were of an entirely different device that Xi had invented.
A brief history of US-China espionage entanglements|Konstantin Kakaes|September 3, 2020|MIT Technology Review
His goal is to refine and commercialize technology, rather than invent anything entirely new.
Neurologists aren’t so sure about Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain implant startup|dzanemorris|August 31, 2020|Fortune
I still do find it a tremendously useful device to invent a character and have the character sing the song.
Belle & Sebastian Aren’t So Shy Anymore|James Joiner|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
As a Harvard undergraduate, he used systolic blood pressure readings to invent the lie detector test.
Wonder Woman’s Creation Story Is Wilder Than You Could Ever Imagine|Tom Arnold-Forster|November 3, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Did McCarthy invent the portrayal of violence in fiction, or should that laurel go to Homer?
Compliments Are Nice, but Enough With the Cormac McCarthy Comparisons|William Giraldi|October 21, 2014|DAILY BEAST
By using an alter ego, he liberates himself, relaxes himself so he can invent freely.
The Stacks: Robin Williams, More Than A Shtick Figure|Joe Morgenstern|August 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Not surprisingly, the losers were now winning engineers; one of the MIT graduates had gone on to invent ear buds for Apple.
These Undocumented Teens Outsmarted MIT—and Still Cant Get Real Jobs in America|Jonathan Alter|July 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Go boldly up to him, and invent some pretence to address him, or wait in this angle of deep shade, and see what would happen next?
In the Days of My Youth|Amelia Ann Blandford Edwards
I shall implore you to invent any way that will enable me to realize life!
Love's Pilgrimage|Upton Sinclair
None but philosophers could invent, and none but philosophers would adopt, a philosophical language.
Practical Education, Volume I|Maria Edgeworth
Schopenhauer wonders why Nature did not take it into her head to invent two entirely separate species of men.
We Philologists, Volume 8 (of 18)|Friedrich Nietzsche
It is this desire to dominate which inspires him to avoid truths over which he has no sway and to invent myths.
Fantazius Mallare|Ben Hecht
British Dictionary definitions for invent
invent
/ (ɪnˈvɛnt) /
verb
to create or devise (new ideas, machines, etc)
to make up (falsehoods); fabricate
Derived forms of invent
inventibleorinventable, adjective
Word Origin for invent
C15: from Latin invenīre to find, come upon, from in- ² + venīre to come