invent

verb

in-VENT/ɪnˈvɛnt/

3 meanings of invent

1
verbtransitive
To design a new process, device, or mechanism that did not exist before.
Engineers at the plant invent new processes to cut waste and speed up production.
Edison invented the phonograph in 1877.
Similarconceive
2
verbtransitive
To make up something fictional, such as a story, character, or excuse, to serve a particular purpose.
The novelist invented an entire language for her fantasy world.
Witnesses under pressure sometimes invent details to make their accounts sound more convincing.
Similarmanufacture, spin
3
verbobsolete
To come upon, find, or discover something.
Note
The original meaning comes straight from Latin inveniō, 'come upon, find', built from in 'on' and veniō 'come'. The same 'come' is heard in advent and event. Spenser still uses it in The Faerie Queene (1590): when he asks whether they did invent Bacchus' merry fruit, he means they found it. Read it as discovery in older texts. Today it is obsolete, and a modern reader would take it as the 'devise' meaning.

Practice

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Origin

This word came into Middle English as inventen, borrowed from Old French inventer, from Latin inventus, the perfect passive participle of inveniō ("come upon, meet with, find, discover"), which combines in ("in, on") with veniō ("come"). It displaced the native Old English āþenċan, literally "to think out."