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# inversion

«inversion» in Mova's school dictionary: **Turning something upside down or the other way round** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (inversion, inversions)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Turning something upside down or the other way round. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inversion/#m1)

2) (maths) Changing to the opposite or reverse, such as swapping the top and bottom of a fraction, or using the inverse operation. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inversion/#m2)

3) (grammar) Changing the usual order of words, like putting the verb before the subject in a question («Are you…?»). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inversion/#m3)

4) (weather) A temperature inversion: a layer of warm air over cold air near the ground that traps fog and smoke. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inversion/#m4)

5) (music) Changing the order of the notes in a chord. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inversion/#m5)

### sense in the lessons

In maths it links to inverse operations (addition and subtraction undo each other) and to flipping fractions when dividing. In English grammar, questions and phrases like «Never have I seen…» use inversion. In science and geography, temperature inversions cause smog. On roller coasters, an inversion is a loop that turns riders upside down. Phrases: temperature inversion, word order inversion.

### examples

- The roller coaster has three inversions. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inversion/#x1)
- To divide by a fraction, we use inversion: 1/2 becomes 2/1. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inversion/#x2)
- «Are you ready?» uses inversion of the subject and the verb. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inversion/#x3)
- A temperature inversion trapped the smoke over the city. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inversion/#x4)
- The poem uses inversion to make the rhyme fit. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inversion/#x5)
- The pianist played the chord in its first inversion. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inversion/#x6)
- Inversion of colours turns black into white on the screen. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inversion/#x7)

### note

Countable or uncountable. Verb: invert; related adjective and noun: inverse. Trap: in maths «inverse» is the usual word for the opposite operation; «inversion» is the act of turning it over. Do not mix up with «invasion».

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «inversion» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/inversion/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.