Invested

How to spell invested

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce invested

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does invested mean?

1. verbCommitted money to an asset or venture in the past, expecting a financial return.
2. verbDevoted time, effort, or emotion to something in the past.
3. verbFormally granted someone with power, rank, or authority in the past.

Invested in a sentence

• She invested most of her savings in a tracker fund last spring.

• He invested years of effort into building the family business.

• The council invested the new mayor with full ceremonial powers.

• The company invested heavily in new machinery before the downturn.

• The volunteers invested countless hours in the local charity.

• Parliament invested the regulator with sweeping enforcement powers.

Where does invested come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word goes back to the Latin verb investire, which literally meant 'to clothe' or 'to dress someone in robes', built from the prefix in- ('into') and vestis, the ordinary Latin word for a garment. In medieval times a person was 'invested' when they were formally clothed in the robes or insignia of an office, which is why we still say someone is invested with authority or rank. The familiar money sense arrived later, borrowed into English in the early 1600s through Italian investire, where merchants spoke of 'clothing' their capital in a new venture, in other words committing funds in the hope of return. The same Latin vestis root still shows up in the everyday words 'vest' and 'vestment', and remembering that hidden 'vest' inside the word is a tidy way to keep the spelling straight. The doubled sense, ceremonial and financial, has travelled together ever since.

How the word is built

• in- (in, into)
• vest (from Latin vestire: to clothe)
• -ed (past-tense/participle suffix)