Reinvent

How to spell reinvent

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce reinvent

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reinvent mean?

1. verbTo create something afresh or remake it in a completely new form.

Reinvent in a sentence

• The company hired consultants to reinvent its tired brand.

• After redundancy he chose to reinvent himself as a freelance designer.

Where does reinvent come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word reinvent is built from the older English verb invent with the prefix re-, meaning 'again'. Invent itself comes from the Latin invenire, which literally meant 'to come upon' or 'to find', a compound of in- 'upon' and venire 'to come'. In Latin an inventor was simply someone who discovered or came across something, and only later did the sense shift from 'finding' to the more creative idea of 'devising' something new. English took invent in during the fifteenth century, and reinvent appeared much later, by the nineteenth century, to describe making something afresh or recasting it in a completely new form. The same venire root still 'comes' through in everyday words such as venue, convene, and event, which is a useful reminder that the spelling hides a buried -vent, not -vant.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• in- (upon/into)
• vent (from venire: to come)