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Inversion   /ɪnvˈərʒən/   Listen
noun
Inversion  n.  
1.
The act of inverting, or turning over or backward, or the state of being inverted.
2.
A change by inverted order; a reversed position or arrangement of things; transposition. "It is just the inversion of an act of Parliament; your lordship first signed it, and then it was passed among the Lords and Commons."
3.
(Mil.) A movement in tactics by which the order of companies in line is inverted, the right being on the left, the left on the right, and so on.
4.
(Math.) A change in the order of the terms of a proportion, so that the second takes the place of the first, and the fourth of the third.
5.
(Geom.) A peculiar method of transformation, in which a figure is replaced by its inverse figure. Propositions that are true for the original figure thus furnish new propositions that are true in the inverse figure. See Inverse figures, under Inverse.
6.
(Gram.) A change of the usual order of words or phrases; as, "of all vices, impurity is one of the most detestable," instead of, "impurity is one of the most detestable of all vices."
7.
(Rhet.) A method of reasoning in which the orator shows that arguments advanced by his adversary in opposition to him are really favorable to his cause.
8.
(Mus.)
(a)
Said of intervals, when the lower tone is placed an octave higher, so that fifths become fourths, thirds sixths, etc.
(b)
Said of a chord, when one of its notes, other than its root, is made the bass.
(c)
Said of a subject, or phrase, when the intervals of which it consists are repeated in the contrary direction, rising instead of falling, or vice versa.
(d)
Said of double counterpoint, when an upper and a lower part change places.
9.
(Geol.) The folding back of strata upon themselves, as by upheaval, in such a manner that the order of succession appears to be reversed.
10.
(Chem.) The act or process by which cane sugar (sucrose), under the action of heat and acids or enzymes (as diastase), is broken or split up into grape sugar (dextrose), and fruit sugar (levulose); also, less properly, the process by which starch is converted into grape sugar (dextrose). Note: The terms invert and inversion, in this sense, owe their meaning to the fact that the plane of polarization of light, which is rotated to the right by cane sugar, is turned toward the left by levulose.
11.
(Meteorology) A reversal of the usual temperature gradient of the atmosphere, in which the temperature increases with increased altitude, rather than falling. Called also temperature inversion. Note: This condition in the vicinity of cities can give rise to a severe episode of atmospheric pollution, as it inhibits normal circulation of the air.
12.
(Electricity) The conversion of direct current into alternating current; the inverse of rectification. See inverted rectifier.
13.
(Genetics) A portion of the genome in which the DNA has been turned around, and runs in a direction opposite to its normal direction, and consequently the genes are present in the reverse of their usual order.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Inversion" Quotes from Famous Books



... is that people should have to go to America again, after coming to Europe! It seems to me an inversion of the order of nature. I think America is a sort of "United" States of Probation, out of which all wise people, being once delivered, and having obtained entrance into this better world, should never be expected to return (sentence irremediably ungrammatical), particularly when they have been ...
— The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe • Charles Edward Stowe
... and from the French aumer, appear all fanciful. It is extensively received that the Sicilians first adopted it from emir, the sea, of their Saracen masters; but it presents a kind of unusual etymological inversion. The term is most frequent in old Romance; but the style and title was not used by us until 1286; and in 1294, William de Leybourne was designated "Amiral de la Mer du Roy d'Angleterre;" six years afterwards Viscount Narbonne was constituted Admiral of France; which ...
— The Sailor's Word-Book • William Henry Smyth
... round is used like a noun as the subject of has been proved. The conjunction that [Footnote: "That was originally the neuter demonstrative pronoun, used to point to the fact stated in an independent sentence; as, It was good; he saw that. By an inversion of the order this became, He saw that (namely) it was good, and so passed into the form He saw that it was good, where that has been transferred to the accessory clause, and has become a mere sign of grammatical subordination."—C. P. Mason.] introduces ...
— Higher Lessons in English • Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg
... name, let me assure the suspicious reader, is his own and not an Erewhonian inversion), in a most informing preface to a new edition, makes two assertions which may serve as my excuse for again endeavoring to explain the fascination for our generation of the work of Samuel Butler. College professors, he avers, have an antipathy for Samuel Butler; the chief interest of Butler, ...
— Definitions • Henry Seidel Canby
... your levity hits the nail on the head sometimes," said Carne, "though the blow cannot be a very heavy one. Nature has not fashioned me for enjoyment, and therefore affords me very little. But some little I do expect in the great inversion coming, in the upset of the scoundrels who have fattened on my flesh, and stolen my land, to make country gentlemen—if it were possible—of themselves. It will take a large chimney to burn their title-deeds, for the robbery has lasted for a century. But I hold the great Emperor's process ...
— Springhaven - A Tale of the Great War • R. D. Blackmore


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