Dictionary

inversion en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ɪnˈvɜː.ʃən/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ɪnˈvɚ.ʒən/ (General-American)

Etymology

From Latin inversiōnem.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The action of inverting.
2. (countable, uncountable) The act of being in an inverted state; being upside down, inside out, or in a reverse sequence.
3. (countable, uncountable) The reversal of an interval; the move of one pitch in an interval up or down an octave.
4. (countable, uncountable) The position of a chord which has a note other than the root as its bass note.
5. (countable, uncountable) The flipping of a melody or contrapuntal line so that high notes become low and vice versa; the reversal of a pitch contour.
6. (countable, uncountable) A segment of DNA in the context of a chromosome that is reversed in orientation relative to a reference karyotype or genome.
7. (countable, uncountable) A situation where air temperature increases with altitude (the ground being colder than the surrounding air).
8. (countable, uncountable) A section of a roller coaster where passengers are temporarily turned upside down.
9. (countable, uncountable) Deviation from standard word order, as for example by putting the predicate before the subject. It takes place in questions with auxiliary verbs; in normal, affirmative clauses beginning with a negative particle, for the purpose of emphasis; and in other rhetorical devices or unusual situations.
   • Question formation involves the phenomenon commonly known as subject-auxiliary inversion, a change in word order in which the auxiliary moves in front of the subject. 2007/08, abergs, “INFL-to-COMP movement”, in English Language and Linguistics Online, archived from the original on 08 Jan 2018:
10. (countable, uncountable) An operation on a group, analogous to negation.
11. (countable, obsolete, uncountable) Homosexuality, particularly in early psychoanalysis.
    • My father, León Fuertes, was a fag three years; […] He put on all the trappings of inversion: the twittered mouthings, the hyper-feminine moues, the languid mincings. 1975, R. M. Koster, The Dissertation, page 118:
    • Equal relationships can only exist between equals. Inversion is the most positive identity possible in the situation as it is now. 1971, Jude, “Destruction of "Sexual Duality"”, in Body Politic, number 1, page 3:
    • We can seldom, therefore, congratulate ourselves on the success of any "cure" of inversion. 1897, W. Havelock Ellis, Sexual Inversion, page 202:
12. (countable, uncountable) The catalytic action of invertase.

Forms

Deriveds

rotoinversion · retrograde inversion · uninversion · third inversion · circle inversion · island of inversion · microinversion · inversion therapy · coinversion · dependency inversion principle · stereoinversion · sexual inversion · inversion table · pseudoinversion · inversionism · inversion illusion · nitrogen inversion · first inversion · second inversion · Walden inversion · inversion pair · reinversion · inversional · population inversion · inversionless · pericentric inversion · paracentric inversion · temperature inversion · penile inversion · noninversion · inversionist · inversion of control

Relateds

serialism · twelve tone technique

Synonyms

anastrophe · temperature inversion · hyperbaton

Translations (26)

bg инве́рсия (deviation from standard word order) · bn অপেক্ষিক (deviation from standard word order) · es invertimiento (being in an inverted state) · es inversión (deviation from standard word order) · el αναστροφή (deviation from standard word order) · mk инве́рзија (deviation from standard word order) · hy շրջում (deviation from standard word order) · ru инве́рсия (deviation from standard word order) · pt inversão (deviation from standard word order) · ga aisiompú (being in an inverted state) · ja 転回形 (musical senses) · hy շրջադասություն (deviation from standard word order) · fi käänteinen sanajärjestys (deviation from standard word order) · ru обра́тный поря́док слов (deviation from standard word order) · fr renversement (musical senses) · fr inversion (deviation from standard word order) · ja 転倒 (deviation from standard word order) · el αντιστροφή (deviation from standard word order) · ja インバージョン (musical senses) · io inversigo (deviation from standard word order) · ja 倒置法 (deviation from standard word order) · fr inversion (being in an inverted state) · de Inversion (deviation from standard word order) · ja 倒置 (deviation from standard word order) · cmn 倒裝 /倒装 (deviation from standard word order) · cmn 轉位 /转位 (musical senses)