inversion

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun the layer of air near the earth is cooler than an overlying layer
noun abnormal condition in which an organ is turned inward or inside out (as when the upper part of the uterus is pulled into the cervical canal after childbirth)
noun a chemical process in which the direction of optical rotation of a substance is reversed from dextrorotatory to levorotary or vice versa

From Latin inversiōnem.

[75] A playful inversion on Jane's part. — Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters: A Family Record, William Austen-Leigh
INVERSION is the least interesting of the three. — Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic, Henri Bergson
Instead of the consequences, the origin--what an inversion of perspective! — Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

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