Invade

//ɪnˈveɪd// verb

verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To move into. transitive

    "Under some circumstances police are allowed to invade a person's privacy."

  2. 2
    march aggressively into another's territory by military force for the purposes of conquest and occupation wordnet
  3. 3
    To enter by force, usually in order to conquer. transitive

    "Argentinian troops invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982."

  4. 4
    penetrate or assault, in a harmful or injurious way wordnet
  5. 5
    To infest or overrun. transitive

    "The picnic was invaded by ants."

Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    to intrude upon, infringe, encroach on, violate wordnet
  2. 7
    To attack; to infringe; to encroach on; to violate.

    "The king invaded the rights of the people."

  3. 8
    occupy in large numbers or live on a host wordnet
  4. 9
    To make an unwelcome or uninvited visit or appearance, usually with an intent to cause trouble or some other unpleasant situation.

Synonyms

All synonyms
accroachadoptadvanceadvance uponappropriatearrogate

Antonyms

All antonyms
evade

Example

More examples

"You must not invade the privacy of others."

Etymology

From Latin invādō (“enter, invade”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.