invalid
/ɪnˈvæl.ɪd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.78 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Not valid; not true, correct, acceptable, or appropriate.
noun
A person who is confined to home or bed because of illness, disability or injury; one who is too sick or weak to care for themselves.
Dated; Offensive
adj
verb
To exempt from (often military) duty because of injury or ill health.
British usage; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "Your argument is invalid because it uses circular reasoning."
- "This invalid contract cannot be legally enforced."
- "Invalidism therefore referred to a lack of power as well as a tendency toward illness. It is for this reason that I choose to discuss the invalid woman rather than just the ill one."
- "He was invalided home after the car crash."
- "[Blackadder:] Right, Baldrick, this is an old trick I picked up in the Sudan. We tell HQ that I’ve gone insane, and I’ll be invalided back to Blighty before you can say "wibble" — a poor, gormless idiot."
- "The Japanese armored cruiser Nisshin has been hit badly. Shells have sheared off several main guns and virtually disarmed the vessel. In the middle of all this, one Ensign Isoroku Yamamoto loses two fingers to the remains of an explosion. If he'd lost a third, he would've been invalided out of military service. Thus, by the retention of a single digit would there be rather large consequences a few decades later on down the line."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Italic *n̥- Latin in-bor. Middle English in- English in- Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁yeti Proto-Indo-European *h₂wl̥h₁éh₁yeti Proto-Italic *walēō Latin valeō Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-der. Proto-Italic *-iðos Latin -idus Latin validusder. Middle French validebor. English valid English invalid From in- + valid.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: invalidus
Usage
- Dated
- Offensive
- Archaic
- British usage
- Transitive verb
Inflected Forms
more invalid (comparative)
most invalid (superlative)
invalids (plural)
invalids (present, singular)
invaliding (participle, present)
invalided (participle, past)
invalided (past)