inverted

English

Pronunciation

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Adjective

inverted

1. Having the order or direction changed; for example, turned upside down, reversed, or in any other way opposite or contrary.
   • 2024 September 12, HarryBlank, “Nothing Changes”, in SCP Foundation‎^[1], archived from the original on 15 September 2024:

     Phil was slumped over the edge of the mattress, inverted, watching her dress. He seemed to have a thing for that. She didn't mind; after eight years, she and Harry had long since ceased to ogle each other after bed. He'd taken longer than she had, but then, she knew he had more to look at than she did.

2. (music, of a chord) Having the lowest note transposed an octave higher.
3. (chemistry, of sugar) Having its polarization changed by hydrolysis; see invert sugar.
4. (dated, psychology) Homosexual, in terms of the sexual inversion theory.
   • 1927, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex‎^[2], volume 2:

     Among the Normans, everywhere, homosexuality was markedly prevalent; the spread of sodomy in France about the eleventh century is attributed to the Normans, and their coming seems to have rendered it at times almost fashionable, at all events at court. In England, William Rufus was undoubtedly inverted, as later on were Edward II, James I, and, perhaps, though not in so conspicuous a degree, William III.

5. (Internet slang, conspiracy theories, of a person) Assumed to be transgender, in the terms of transvestigation. [from 2010s]

Derived terms

• inverted breve
• inverted caret
• inverted circumflex
• inverted comma
• inverted exclamation point
• inverted hat
• inverted index
• inverted interrobang
• inverted Jenny
• inverted pall
• inverted pentagram
• inverted pyramid
• inverted question mark
• inverted river delta
• inverted row
• inverted snobbery
• inverted sugar
• inverted totalitarianism
• pall inverted

 

Translations

upside down

• Bulgarian: обърнат (bg) (obǎrnat), преобърнат (bg) (preobǎrnat)
• German: umgekehrt (de), invertiert (de)
• Latin: inversus
• Malay: terbalik (ms)
• Ottoman Turkish: وارون (varun)
• Slovak: opačný, obrátený

Verb

inverted

1. simple past and past participle of invert

References

• “inverted”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “inverted”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.