Invent vs. Invest — What's the Difference?

To produce or contrive (something previously unknown) by the use of ingenuity or imagination.

To commit (money or capital) in order to gain a financial return

To make up; fabricate

To spend or devote for future advantage or benefit

To design a new process or mechanism.

To devote morally or psychologically, as to a purpose; commit

To create something fictional for a particular purpose.

To endow with authority or power

(obsolete) To come upon; to find; to discover.

To install in office with ceremony

To come or light upon; to meet; to find.

To provide with an enveloping or pervasive quality

To discover, as by study or inquiry; to find out; to devise; to contrive or produce for the first time; - applied commonly to the discovery of some serviceable mode, instrument, or machine.

To clothe; adorn.

To frame by the imagination; to fabricate mentally; to forge; - in a good or a bad sense; as, to invent the machinery of a poem; to invent a falsehood.

To cover completely; envelop.

Come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or priciple) after a mental effort;

To surround with troops or ships; besiege.

Make up something artificial or untrue

To make investments or an investment

To purchase with the expectation of benefit

To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in.

To clothe or wrap (with garments).

To put on (clothing).

To envelop, wrap, cover.

To commit money or capital in the hope of financial gain.

To ceremonially install someone in some office.

To formally give (someone) some power or authority.

To formally give (power or authority).

To surround, accompany, or attend.

To lay siege to.

(intransitive) To make investments.

(metallurgy) To prepare for lost wax casting by creating an investment mold (a mixture of a silica sand and plaster).

(intransitive) To cause to be involved in; to cause to form strong attachments to.

(meteorology) An unnamed tropical weather pattern "to investigate" for development into a significant (named) system.

To put garments on; to clothe; to dress; to array; - opposed to divest. Usually followed by with, sometimes by in; as, to invest one with a robe.

To put on.

To clothe, as with office or authority; to place in possession of rank, dignity, or estate; to endow; to adorn; to grace; to bedeck; as, to invest with honor or glory; to invest with an estate.

To surround, accompany, or attend.

To confer; to give.

To inclose; to surround or hem in with troops, so as to intercept reinforcements of men and provisions and prevent escape; to lay siege to; as, to invest a town.

To lay out (money or capital) in business with the view of obtaining an income or profit; as, to invest money in bank stock.

To expend (time, money, or other resources) with a view to obtaining some benefit of value in excess of that expended, or to achieve a useful pupose; as, to invest a lot of time in teaching one's children.

To make an investment; as, to invest in stocks; - usually followed by in.

Make an investment;

Give qualities or abilities to

Furnish with power or authority; of kings or emperors

Provide with power and authority;

Place ceremoniously or formally in an office or position;