invent

/ɪnˈvɛnt/

/ɪnˈvɛnt/

Other forms: invented; inventing; invents

To invent is to create for the first time or make up. If you tell your friends that you invented the electric guitar, you are inventing a pretty unbelievable story about your past.

When you think of the word invent, think of Thomas Alva Edison who invented the long-lasting light bulb, the motion picture camera, the phonograph, and the stock ticker. That's a lot of inventions! You couldn't invent a better story of American ingenuity, could you?

Definitions of invent

1. verb

   come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or principle) after a mental effort
   synonyms: contrive, devise, excogitate, forge, formulate

   type of:

   create by mental act, create mentally

   create mentally and abstractly rather than with one's hands
2. verb

   make up something artificial or untrue
   synonyms: cook up, fabricate, fabulate, make up, manufacture

   types:

   mythologise, mythologize

   construct a myth

   confabulate

   unconsciously replace fact with fantasy in one's memory

   concoct, trump up

   invent

   spin

   make up a story

   vamp, vamp up

   make up

   type of:

   concoct, dream up, hatch, think of, think up

   devise or invent