Meaning & use

invalid

adjective·Academic

Not legally or officially acceptable, or not correct according to logic or fact.

See it in a sentence

The referee ruled the goal invalid because a player was offside.

Her passport was invalid, having expired the month before the trip.

A note on using this word

Stress falls on the first syllable for this adjective sense; the noun sense, meaning a person with a disabling illness, stresses the second syllable and is now considered outdated.

Words with a similar meaning

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

Another way to use it

2. noun

A person made weak or disabled by chronic illness or injury (now considered dated).

In the old novel, the aunt spends her final years as a bedridden invalid.

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