to originate or create as a product of one's own ingenuity, experimentation, or contrivance

to invent the telegraph.

to produce or create with the imagination

to invent a story.

to make up or fabricate (something fictitious or false)

to invent excuses.

Archaic . to come upon; find.

verb

steal , tell truth

verb

ad-lib , author , bear , bring into being , coin , come upon , come up with , compose , conceive , contrive , cook up * , design , devise , discover , dream up , envision , execute , fake , fashion , find , forge , form , formulate , frame , hatch , imagine , improve , improvise , inaugurate , initiate , jam * , knock off * , make , make up , mint , off-the-cuff , originate , plan , produce , project , toss off , turn out , wing *notes:the word discover goes back to latin dis- and cooperire , meaning \'to remove the covering; completely uncover.\' by 1553 , it was used to mean \'seeing or gaining knowledge of something previously unknown\' and \'finding out; bringing to light.\' you discover (\'uncover\') something that is already there , something that has existed but is generally unknown - but you invent something that has never existed before. , concoct , conjure up , create out of thin air , equivocate , falsify , feign , fib , lie , make believe , misrepresent , misstate , pretend , prevaricate , simulate , tell a white lie , tell untruth , think up , trump up , vampnotes:the word discover goes back to latin dis- and cooperire , fabricate , create , develop , engineer , evolve , excogitate , innovate , machinate , patent , pioneer , vamp