Definition of Inversion

Inversion

The act of inverting, or turning over or backward, or the state of being inverted.

A change by inverted order; a reversed position or arrangement of things; transposition.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

Said of intervals, when the lower tone is placed an octave higher, so that fifths become fourths, thirds sixths, etc.

Said of a chord, when one of its notes, other than its root, is made the bass.

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.

Said of double counterpoint, when an upper and a lower part change places.

The folding back of strata upon themselves, as by upheaval, in such a manner that the order of succession appears to be reversed.

The act or process by which cane sugar (sucrose), under the action of heat and acids or ferments (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).

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Inversion Quotations

We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.
Ayn Rand

The sensitivity of men to small matters, and their indifference to great ones, indicates a strange inversion.
Blaise Pascal

Furthermore, America suffers not only from a lack of standards, but also not infrequently from a confusion or an inversion of standards.
Irving Babbitt

Soon afterwards I studied the inversion of sugar in the light of these considerations and immediately found that this classical reaction, too, was determined quantitatively by the same property of the acids, as was of course to be expected from the previous results.
Wilhelm Ostwald

For, with pure water the inversion of cane sugar scarcely proceeds and subsequently it required very thorough, difficult studies before this effect and its order of magnitude were established.
Wilhelm Ostwald

The internet is a total inversion of television. It's the opposite.
Joel Hodgson

More Inversion Quotations

Inversion Translations

inversion in German is Umkehrung
inversion in Norwegian is inversjon

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