in·vent

(ĭn-vĕnt′)

tr.v. in·vent·ed, in·vent·ing, in·vents

1. To produce or contrive (something previously unknown) by the use of ingenuity or imagination.

2. To make up; fabricate: invent a likely excuse.

[Latin invenīre, invent-, to find : in-, on, upon; see in-² + venīre, to come; see g^wā- in Indo-European roots.]

in·vent′i·ble adj.

in·ven′tor n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

inventor

(ɪnˈvɛntə)

a person who invents, esp as a profession

inˈventress fem n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

in•ven•tor

(ɪnˈvɛn tər)

n.

a person who invents, esp. one who devises some new process, appliance, machine, or article; one who makes inventions.

Sometimes, in•vent′er.

[1500–10; < Latin]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

inventor - someone who is the first to think of or make something

artificer, discoverer

creator - a person who grows or makes or invents things

patentee - the inventor to whom a patent is issued

inventor

noun creator, father, maker, author, framer, designer, architect, coiner, originator the inventor of the telephone

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

inventor

noun

One that creates, founds, or originates:

architect, author, creator, entrepreneur, father, founder, maker, originator, parent, patriarch.

Translations

مُخْتَرِعمُخْتَرِعٌ

vynálezce

opfinder

keksijä

izumitelj

feltaláló

uppfinningamaîur

inventore fabbricatore

発明者

발명가

vynálezca

izumitelj

uppfinnare

ผู้ประดิษฐ์

muciticat eden kimse

người phát minh

发明者

inventor

[ɪnˈventəʳ] N → inventor(a) m/f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

inventor

[ɪnˈvɛntə^r] n → inventeur/trice m/f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

inventor

n → Erfinder(in) m(f)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

inventor

[ɪnˈvɛntəʳ] n → inventore/trice

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

invent

(inˈvent) verb

1. to be the first person to make or use (eg a machine, method etc). Who invented the microscope?; When was printing invented?

2. to make up or think of (eg an excuse or story). I'll have to invent some excuse for not going with him.

inˈvention (-ʃən) noun

1. the act of inventing or the ability to invent. He had great powers of invention.

2. something invented. What a marvellous invention the sewing-machine was!

inˈventive (-tiv) adjective

good at inventing. an inventive mind.

inˈventiveness noun

inˈventor noun

a person who invents. Alexander Graham Bell was the inventor of the telephone.

inventor

→ مُخْتَرِعٌ vynálezce opfinder Erfinder εφευρέτης inventor keksijä inventeur izumitelj inventore 発明者 발명가 uitvinder oppfinner wynalazca inventor изобретатель uppfinnare ผู้ประดิษฐ์ mucit người phát minh 发明者

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

AN Inventor went to a King and was granted an audience, when the following conversation ensued:

INVENTOR. - "May it please your Majesty, I have invented a rifle that discharges lightning."

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But the young inventor was too busy listening to the unseen speaker to answer his chum, even if he heard what Ned remarked, which is doubtful.

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I mean here the inventor of that most exquisite entertainment, called the English Pantomime.

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And the third of these speech-improving Bells, the inventor of the telephone, inherited the peculiar genius of his fathers, both inventive and rhetorical, to such a degree that as a boy he had constructed an artificial skull, from gutta-percha and India rubber, which, when enlivened by a blast of air from a hand-bellows, would actually pronounce several words in an almost human manner.

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Brave soldiers leading Zionists, deserving novelists, noble ladies, congested the narrow passage and thrust distinguished elbows into ribs the world would not willingly let break, deeming themselves fortunate if they could see "just a little bit of the rail." Inaudible, but convincing, the great inventor expounded his discovery, and sent his obedient little model of the trains of the future up gradients, round curves, and across a sagging wire.

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Homer, for example, makes men better than they are; Cleophon as they are; Hegemon the Thasian, the inventor of parodies, and Nicochares, the author of the Deiliad, worse than they are.

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The inventor of a new cannon associated himself with the caster and the borer.

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Here was a case where simplicity would have been an advantage; therefore, for no other reason, the inventor of this language complicated it all he could.

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He called it the Sleet's crow's-nest, in honor of himself; he being the original inventor and patentee, and free from all ridiculous false delicacy, and holding that if we call our own children after our own names (we fathers being the original inventors and patentees), so likewise should we denominate after ourselves any other apparatus we may beget.

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The learned vigils and labours of a certain class of inventors should have been rewarded with honourable liberality as justice demanded; and the bodies of the inventors should have been blown to pieces by means of their own perfected explosives and improved weapons with extreme publicity as the commonest prudence dictated.

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Not around the inventors of new noise, but around the inventors of new values, doth the world revolve; INAUDIBLY it revolveth.

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