Invite

How to spell invite

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce invite

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does invite mean?

1. verbTo ask someone, in a friendly or formal way, to come to an event or to do something.
2. nounAn invitation to an event, used informally.

Invite in a sentence

• verb

  They decided to invite the whole department to the leaving party.

• noun

  He never received an invite to the wedding.

• verb

  She wanted to invite her neighbours over for dinner on Saturday.

• noun

  Thanks for the invite to the barbecue next weekend.

Where does invite come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin invitare, which meant 'to ask someone to come' or 'to entertain a guest'. The exact roots of invitare are not fully settled by scholars, though it has long been linked to ideas of welcoming and willingness; some connect it to a root suggesting eagerness or pleasure. English took the word in during the early 1500s, partly through the French inviter, and from the start it carried both the formal sense of summoning someone to an event and the warmer sense of making them feel welcome. The noun use of 'invite', meaning the invitation itself, is much more recent and informal, and it shifts the stress to the first syllable. The spelling stays close to the Latin original, which is why the silent stretch in the middle (the 'vit' before the final silent 'e') rarely trips writers up.

How the word is built

• in- (to, toward)
• vit (from Latin invitare, to ask/summon)