invert

English

Pronunciation

• (verb):
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈvɜːt/
  • (General American) enPR: ĭn-vərtʹ, IPA^(key): /ɪnˈvɜɹt/

  • Audio (Canada):

    (file)

  • Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)t
• (noun):
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɪn.vət/
  • (General American) enPR: ĭnʹvərt, IPA^(key): /ˈɪn.vəɹt/
  • Rhymes: -ɪnvə(ɹ)t

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Hyphenation: in‧vert

Etymology 1

From Middle French invertir.

Verb

invert (third-person singular simple present inverts, present participle inverting, simple past and past participle inverted)

1. (transitive) To turn (something) upside down or inside out; to place in a contrary order or direction.

   to invert a cup, the order of words, rules of justice, etc.

   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

     That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears, / As if these organs had deceptious functions.

   • 1781 (date written), William Cowper, “Table Talk”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1782, →OCLC, page 4:

     Seldom, alas! the power of logic reigns / With much ſufficiency in royal brains. / Such reaſ'ning falls like an inverted cone, / Wanting its proper baſe to ſtand upon.

2. (transitive, music) To move (the root note of a chord) up or down an octave, resulting in a change in pitch.
3. (chemistry, intransitive) To undergo inversion, as sugar.
4. To divert; to convert to a wrong use.
   • 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:

     [H]e had miſgouerned the ſtate, inuerted his treaſures to his owne priuat […]

5. (anatomy) To turn (the foot) inwards.

Derived terms

• invert sugar
• invertasome
• inverted
• invertible

Related terms

• inversion

Translations

turn upside down or inside out

• Bulgarian: преобръщам (bg) (preobrǎštam)
• Catalan: invertir (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 反转 (zh) (fǎnzhuǎn), 倒转 (zh) (dàozhuǎn)

• Dutch: omdraaien (nl), omkeren (nl)
• Estonian: pöörama
• Finnish: kääntää ylösalaisin, kääntää (fi)
• French: invertir (fr)
• German: invertieren (de)
• Hebrew: הָפַך (he) (hafách)
• Hungarian: (inside out) kifordít (hu), (upside down) felfordít (hu), (swapping) megfordít (hu), (in technical senses) invertál (hu)
• Irish: aisiompaigh
• Italian: invertire (it)
• Latin: invertō
• Maori: huripoki, huri kōaro
• Occitan: invertir (oc)
• Portuguese: inverter (pt)
• Slovak: obrátiť
• Spanish: invertir (es)
• Turkish: terslemek (tr)

move (the root note of a chord) up or down an octave

See also

• convert

Noun

invert (plural inverts)

1. (architecture) An inverted arch (as in a sewer).
2. The base of a tunnel on which the road or railway may be laid and used when construction is through unstable ground. It may be flat or form a continuous curve with the tunnel arch.
3. (civil engineering) The lowest point inside a pipe at a certain point.
4. (civil engineering) An elevation of a pipe at a certain point along the pipe.
5. A skateboarding trick where the skater grabs the board and plants a hand on the coping so as to balance upside-down on the lip of a ramp.
6. (obsolete, psychology) A homosexual person, in terms of the sexual inversion theory.
   • 1897, W. Havelock Ellis, Sexual Inversion, page 202:

     We can seldom, therefore, congratulate ourselves on the success of any "cure" of inversion. The success is unlikely to be either permanent or complete, in the case of a decided invert; and in the most successful cases we have simply put into the invert's hands a power of reproduction which it is undesirable he should possess.

7. (Internet slang, conspiracy theories) Of a person, assumed to be transgender, in terms of transvestigation. [from 2010s]

Translations

architecture: inverted arch

• Bulgarian: обърнат свод (obǎrnat svod)

engineering: lowest point inside pipe

engineering: elevation of pipe

homosexual — see homosexual

Adjective

invert (not comparable)

1. (chemistry) Subjected to the process of inversion; inverted; converted.

   invert sugar

Etymology 2

Noun

invert (plural inverts)

1. (zoology, informal) An invertebrate.

Anagrams

• Vinter, ventri-, virent