• enPR: ĭnvīt', IPA: /ɪnˈvaɪt/

invite (invites, present participle inviting; past and past participle invited)

1. (transitive) To ask for the presence or participation of someone or something.

   We invited our friends round for dinner.

2. (transitive) To request formally.

   I invite you all to be seated.

3. (transitive) To encourage.

   I always invite criticism of my definitions.

   Wearing that skimpy dress, you are bound to invite attention.

   • 1902, Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt's Second State of the Union Address

     The refusal to maintain such a navy would invite trouble, and if trouble came would insure disaster.

4. (transitive) To allure; to draw to; to tempt to come; to induce by pleasure or hope; to attract.
   • 1634 October 9 (first performance)​, [John Milton], H[enry] Lawes, editor, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: Printed [by Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, OCLC 228715864 ↗; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, OCLC 1113942837 ↗:

     to inveigle and invite th' unwary sense

   • shady groves, that easy sleep invite

   • There no delusive hope invites despair.

• (ask for the presence or participation of) ask out
• (request formally) ask, beseech, entreat, request
• (encourage) ask for, encourage, provoke

• French: inviter, convier
• German: einladen
• Italian: invitare
• Portuguese: convidar
• Russian: приглаша́ть
• Spanish: invitar, convidar

• Portuguese: convidar
• Russian: проси́ть

• enPR: ĭn'vīt, IPA: /ˈɪnvaɪt/

invite (plural invites)

1. (informal) An invitation.

• French: invitation
• German: Einladung
• Italian: invito
• Portuguese: convite
• Russian: приглаше́ние
• Spanish: invitación