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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



... which, no doubt, the popularity of this class of beverage is largely due. Invert sugar is prepared by the action either of acid or of yeast on cane sugar. The chemical equation representing the conversion (or inversion) of cane ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 - "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" • Various
... Principalities, North America, etc. Artificial fertilizers, guano in particular, indeed substitute the offal of men and beasts; but many farmers can not obtain the same in sufficient quantity; it is too dear; at any rate, it is an inversion of nature to import manure from great distances, while it is allowed ...
— Woman under socialism • August Bebel
... and hospitality, was held in high reputation, assuming, in these respects, the attitude of a royal court in the northern parts of the kingdom; and the family were regarded with such veneration and esteem that the following harmless inversion was familiar "as household words:"—"God save the Earl of Derby and the King;" the general feeling and opinion thereby apparent being love to their lord and loyalty to ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby
... acquaintance with the mythology of other nations, were made to furnish him with the materials for hastily applying one solution to all the early Jewish histories, which he failed to invalidate by the application of the historic method just described. By an inversion of the argument of the early Christian apologists, he pretended that the early history preserved among the Hebrews was borrowed from the heathens, instead of claiming that the heathen mythology was a trace of Hebrew tradition; and, with a view ...
— History of Free Thought in Reference to The Christian Religion • Adam Storey Farrar
... man and the crocodile are difficult to understand, the more so as the tale breaks off in the midst of that part. It appears also as if there had been some inversion of the paragraphs; for, first, we read that the wife would not let the prince go alone, and one goes with him toward Egypt, and the crocodile of the Nile (apparently) is mentioned; then he is said to be sitting ...
— Egyptian Tales, Second Series - Translated from the Papyri • W. M. Flinders Petrie


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