invasive

[ in-vey-siv ]
See synonyms for invasive on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. characterized by or involving invasion; offensive: invasive war.

  2. invading, or tending to invade; intrusive: Every party we have is crashed by those invasive neighbors.

  1. Medicine/Medical. requiring the entry of a needle, catheter, or other instrument into a part of the body, especially in a diagnostic procedure, as a biopsy: An x-ray is not invasive, but it may not tell us everything we need to know.

  2. (of a plant, especially a nonnative one) posing a threat to a plant community by growing vigorously and spreading prolifically among the previously established vegetation: One of these invasive Asian grasses is making its way to the forest floors of southern Indiana.

Origin of invasive

1
First recorded in 1580–1600; French invasif, from Medieval Latin invāsīvus, derivative of Latin invāsus, past participle of invādere “to come into, go into, usurp, attack,” see invasion, -ive

Other words from invasive

  • un·in·va·sive, adjective

Words Nearby invasive

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How to use invasive in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for invasive

invasive

/ (ɪnˈveɪsɪv) /


adjective
  1. of or relating to an invasion, intrusion, etc

  2. relating to or denoting cancer at the stage at which it has spread from its site of origin to other tissues

  1. (of surgery) involving making a relatively large incision in the body to gain access to the target of the surgery, as opposed to making a small incision or gaining access endoscopically through a natural orifice

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for invasive

invasive

[ ĭn-vāsĭv ]


    • Relating to a disease or condition that has a tendency to spread, especially a malignant cancer that spreads into healthy tissue.

    • Relating to a medical procedure in which a part of the body is entered, as by puncture or incision.

  1. Not native to and tending to spread widely in a habitat or environment. Invasive species often have few natural predators or other biological controls in their new environment. Although not always considered harmful to an environment, invasive species can become agricultural or ecological pests and can displace native species from their habitats. Invasive species are often introduced to an environment unintentionally, as the zebra mussel was to the Great Lakes, but are sometimes introduced for a purpose, as kudzu was to the southern US, where it was originally planted to control erosion.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.