Invited

How to spell invited

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce invited

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does invited mean?

1. verbAsked someone, in the past, to come somewhere or take part in something.
2. adjectiveHaving been asked to attend; on the guest list.

Invited in a sentence

• verb

  She invited the whole department to her leaving party.

• adjective

  Only invited guests were allowed past the front desk.

• verb

  They invited us to stay for the weekend.

• adjective

  The invited speaker arrived an hour before the lecture.

Where does invited come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past tense of 'invite', which English took from the Latin verb invitare, meaning 'to summon, to ask someone in, to entertain as a guest'. The deeper origin of invitare is genuinely uncertain, though it may connect to a root suggesting eagerness or willingness, the same idea that survives in the related Latin word for 'pleasant'. English borrowed the verb in the early 1500s, partly through French inviter, which carried the same meaning of asking a person to come or take part. The form 'invited' simply adds the regular -ed past ending, and because the base word already ends in a silent 'e', writers drop that 'e' before adding -ed, giving 'invited' rather than 'inviteed'. The single 't' is the only mild trap, since the vowel before it is long and the consonant is not doubled.

How the word is built

• in- (toward, in)
• vite (from Latin invitare: to summon, entertain)
• -d (past tense suffix)