1Make a polite, formal, or friendly request to (someone) to go somewhere or to do something.

1. 1.1Make a formal or polite request for (something) from someone.
   ‘applications are invited for the post of Director’
   More example sentences

   • ‘Gaveling the hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee to order, the chairman invites the attorney general to make his opening remarks.’
   • ‘Next week they'll have an interview with Pantano, and they're inviting readers to submit questions.’
   • ‘For the first time, virtually every candidate has their own Internet website and is inviting voters to email questions.’
   • ‘Due to maternity leave we are inviting applications for the post of Temporary Playgroup Assistant.’
   • ‘Two days after the spill, Morral held a town meeting in a nearby school, inviting townspeople to ask questions.’
   • ‘A handout of questions for small-group discussion invites conversations in small groups.’
   • ‘The site invites children to e-mail questions about the online crossword puzzles.’
   • ‘This paper asks many questions and invites the listeners to question their own beliefs.’
   • ‘In light of the recent statement from the IRA, we are inviting readers to pose questions for the parties regarding their response.’
   • ‘There is essentially a new filter in the application process, because the Government is inviting people to apply.’
   • ‘The Custom House Artists Studios are now inviting artists to apply for studio spaces to commence next year.’
   • ‘Voters in Rochford and Southend East have received unsolicited letters inviting them to apply to be a postal voter.’
   • ‘In pleading guilty and inviting death by firing squad the narrator is at least making a stand.’
   • ‘We have a formal where we invite every alum whose ever been through to come back.’
   • ‘They are questions which we would invite your Lordship to certify as questions of general public importance.’
   • ‘The Council is one of the first to set up commissioning bodies which invite groups to apply to provide services.’
   • ‘A number of obstacles has led to delays in filling the post, but the union is now inviting applications from suitable candidates.’
   • ‘Balance, the Volume Editor hopes, has here been achieved by inviting contributors who apply both imagination and common sense to their material.’
   • ‘Later in the year, the Revenue will begin writing to people who are currently receiving one of the existing tax credits, inviting them to apply for the new ones.’
   • ‘We invite readers to put their questions so they can attend a question time session during his visit to the city.’
   Synonyms

   ask for, request, call for, look for, appeal for, solicit, seek, petition, summon

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2. 1.2(of an action or situation) tend to elicit (a particular reaction or response) or to tempt (someone) to do something.
   ‘his use of the word did little but invite criticism’
   More example sentences

   • ‘The case invites the Court to revisit the breadth of constitutionally protected privacy and the status of homosexuality in our legal system.’
   • ‘I mean this is provocative statements that are inviting a counter reaction from the government, and now she got it.’
   • ‘This situation invites the view that the evolution of higher taxes was driven by changes in single major genes that acted as switches between such alternate forms.’
   • ‘The films he made look simple at first glance, yet already invite a more complicated response.’
   • ‘They also possess a crisp beauty that invites an immediate retinal response, even if their content steers the viewer away from any purely formalist reading.’
   • ‘This would invite or ignite horrible reaction in the Middle East.’
   • ‘But determining its place within a general taxonomy invites a further step.’
   • ‘Wood certainly does not intend to invite a dry, studious response.’
   • ‘Watt's paintings of antique fabric especially invite such a variety of responses.’
   • ‘I didn't think to myself it would invite more criticism, which I definitely should have thought.’
   • ‘I don't often use my bell as it seems impatient and may invite further criticism’
   • ‘After a moment, David became more demanding, inviting more of a response from Carrie.’
   • ‘It invites the Court to make a punitive order as to costs against the ‘person’ whose conduct has been improper.’
   • ‘Piloting will provide a guide for rephrasing questions to invite a richer response.’
   • ‘Thus, consistent with Newton's famous law, lousy management invites an equal and opposing reaction.’
   • ‘That is because too much predictability in the name of transparency weakens control by the gaming responses it invites.’
   • ‘Perhaps we should invite those who criticise and abuse with little provocation?’
   • ‘By 1865, to paint the circle of Manet and Fantin was to invite more criticism for the group.’
   • ‘In fact in some instances they may invite more criticism than praise.’
   • ‘Slavery depended on force, inviting the enslaved to answer with resistance.’
   Synonyms

   cause, induce, provoke, create, generate, engender, foster, encourage, lead to, call forth, make happen

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An invitation.