invective
/ɪnˈvɛktɪv/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.41 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Something spoken or written, intended to cast shame, disgrace, censure, or reproach on another.
Countable; Uncountable
adj
Characterized by invection or railing.
Example Sentences
- "And wordy attacks against slavery drew sneers from observers which were not altogether undeserved. The authors were compared to doctors who offered to a patient nothing more than invectives against the disease which consumed him."
- "[A] savage passage of 14th-century invective about the text-obsessed nerdiness of the Florentine bibliophile and friend of Petrarch, Niccolò Niccoli ..."
- "Politics can raise invective to a low art."
- "Tom's speeches became diatribes — each more invective than the last."
Etymology
From Middle French invective, from Medieval Latin invectiva (“abusive speech”), from Latin invectīvus, from invectus, perfect passive participle of invehō (“bring in”), from in- + vehō (“carry”). See vehicle, and compare with inveigh.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *weǵʰ-, invective, invectiva, invectīvus