invites

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of invite.

   Our landlord invites the tenants to a meeting each spring.

   The committee invites public comment before approving the budget.

   Note

   The verb form always takes an object, because every sense of invite is transitive: someone invites a person, a response or a risk. The "encourage" and "attract" meanings appear here as readily as the social one, as in a plan that invites criticism or a shady bench that invites a rest. Unlike the plural noun, this form carries no informal flavor and fits any register.

   A vague contract invites disputes later on.

   The quiet garden invites visitors to linger.

2. 2
   nouncolloquial

   Plural of invite.

   We mailed the invites to relatives in three different states.

   Half the invites came back marked with the wrong address.

   Note

   A casual plural, because the noun behind it is the informal stand-in for invitation. Invites suits a group chat or a party plan; on a printed card or in a formal letter, invitations is the safer choice. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb, as in she invites us every year. A determiner or number in front of it (the invites, fifty invites) marks the noun.

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