Did you know?
Is invite really a noun?
Yes. Some people feel strongly that the role of invite should be restricted to that of verb, but the English language changes and grows according to its own peculiar whims, and not those of people who write angry letters to dictionaries. The process whereby a word changes its part of speech is called functional shift, and there are tens of thousands of words which have done this. Some of them just bother people more than others, and invite (along with gift and friend, which have changed in the opposite direction) is one that attracts considerable opprobrium.
Cite this Entry
“Invite.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/invite. Accessed 17 Aug. 2025.
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