Invitational

How to spell invitational

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce invitational

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does invitational mean?

1. adjectiveOpen or available only to people who have been formally invited, rather than to the general public.
2. nounA competition or event to which participants are admitted only by invitation.

Invitational in a sentence

• adjective

  The club runs an invitational golf tournament every summer for selected members.

• noun

  She qualified for the national tennis invitational after a strong season.

• adjective

  Entry to the invitational gallery opening was strictly by personal request.

• noun

  The swimming invitational attracted athletes from twelve different clubs.

Where does invitational come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb invitare, which meant 'to invite, to summon, to entertain'; the underlying sense was something like welcoming a guest in a friendly way. From invitare English took the noun 'invitation' through Old French in the 1400s, and the adjective 'invitational' was then built on it by adding the English suffix -al, meaning 'relating to'. The adjective settled into common use in the late 1800s and the 1900s, especially in sport, to describe an event open only to those who have been formally asked to take part. From there it slid easily into a noun, so that an 'invitational' is simply such an event. The spelling trap lies in the unstressed middle: the -ta- and the -tion- both reduce to a soft schwa in speech, which tempts writers to drop or swap letters that the written form keeps in full.

How the word is built

• in- (intensive prefix)
• vit- (from Latin invitare, to invite)
• -ation (noun-forming suffix)
• -al (adjective/noun suffix)