inventing
in-VEN-ting/ˈɪnvɛntɪŋ/
- 1Present participle and gerund of invent.
The team spent years inventing a cheaper way to purify drinking water.
He kept inventing excuses for missing one meeting after another.
Note
One spelling, two jobs: in "she is inventing a new valve" it is the participle of the progressive, while in "credit for inventing the valve" it is a gerund, a verbal noun that still takes a direct object. Both carry invent's two live meanings, engineering a device and making up a story or excuse. An older, obsolete use meant to come upon or find, so in early texts inventing something can mean discovering it.
inventing is a form of invent
invent, verb: To design a new process, device, or mechanism that did not exist before. Full entry
- Spelling
- invent → inventing: add -ing
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