inventory

inventory

English

Etymology

From Middle English inventorie, from Old French inventoire (whence French inventaire), from Late Latin inventārium, from Latin inveniō (“to find out”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɪn.vən.tɹi/, /ɪnˈvɛn.tə.ɹi/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɪn.vənˌtɔ.ɹi/

Noun

inventory (plural inventories)

1. (operations) The stock of an item on hand at a particular location or business.

   Due to an undersized inventory at the Boston outlet, customers had to travel to Providence to find the item.

2. (operations) A detailed list of all of the items on hand.

   The inventory included several items that one wouldn't normally think to find at a cheese shop.

3. (operations) The process of producing or updating such a list.

   This month's inventory took nearly three days.

4. A space containing the items available to a character, especially that in a video game, for immediate use.

   You can't get through the underground tunnel if there are more than three items in your inventory.

5. (linguistics, especially phonology) The total set of a (specified) linguistic feature (within a language etc.)

   Germanic languages have a marked tendency towards large vocalic inventories.

   • 2014, Guillaume Jacques, “V: Cone”, in Jackson Sun, editor, Phonological Profiles of Little-Studied Tibetic Varieties, Taipei, →ISBN, OCLC 907654712, page 270:

     Most final consonants have been lost, resulting in a tonal language with a rich consonantal and vocalic inventory, but with a relatively simple syllabic structure..

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:list

Related terms

• invent
• invented
• inventive
• invention
• inventor
• reinvent

Translations

stock of an item on hand at a particular location or business

Bulgarian: инвентар (bg) m (inventar) Catalan: inventari (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 庫存／库存 (zh) (kùcún), 儲存／储存 (zh) (chúcún) Esperanto: inventaro Finnish: varasto (fi) French: inventaire (fr) m German: Inventar (de) n, Lager (de) n Hungarian: készlet (hu), árukészlet (hu), raktár (hu) (in the phrase raktáron van) Indonesian: inventaris (id) Italian: scorta (it) Japanese: 在庫 (ja) (ざいこ, zaiko) Malay: inventori Polish: inwentarz (pl) m Portuguese: inventário (pt) m, existências f pl (Portugal) Russian: инвента́рь (ru) m (inventárʹ), запа́сы (ru) m pl (zapásy) Slovak: zásoba f, inventár m, (mať niečo) na sklade Spanish: inventario (es) m Swedish: lager (sv) n, inventarier (sv) pl Tagalog: talatinggalan Turkish: envanter (tr) Uyghur: زاپاس‎ (zapas), قالدۇق‎ (qalduq), ئامبار زاپىسى‎ (ambar zapisi), خەزىنە قالدۇقى‎ (xezine qalduqi), ئىسكىلات قالدۇقى‎ (iskilat qalduqi)

detailed list of all of the items on hand

Bulgarian: опис (bg) m (opis) Catalan: inventari (ca) m Czech: inventář (cs) m Dutch: inventaris (nl) m Esperanto: inventaro Finnish: varastoluettelo, inventaari; pesäluettelo (fi) (of an estate) Galician: inventario m German: Inventar (de) n, Inventarliste (de) f, Inventarverzeichnis (de) n Hungarian: leltár (hu), kimutatás (hu) Indonesian: inventaris (id) Italian: inventario (it) Latin: inventārium n (Late) Malay: inventori Maori: rārangi taputapu Polish: inwentarz (pl) m Portuguese: inventário (pt) m Russian: рее́стр (ru) m (rejéstr) Slovak: inventár m Spanish: inventario (es) m Swedish: inventarieförteckning c, lagersaldo n, inventering (sv) c Tagalog: talatinggalan Turkish: envanter (tr)

process of producing or updating such a list

Bulgarian: инвентаризация f (inventarizacija) Catalan: inventari (ca) m Czech: inventura (cs) f Dutch: inventariseren (nl) n Esperanto: inventarado Finnish: inventointi (fi) Galician: inventario m German: Inventur (de) f Hungarian: leltár (hu), leltározás Italian: inventario (it) Polish: inwentarz (pl) m Portuguese: inventário (pt) m Russian: инвентариза́ция (ru) f (inventarizácija), о́пись (ru) f (ópisʹ), переучёт (ru) m (pereučót), учёт (ru) m (učót) Serbo-Croatian: попис m (popis) Slovak: inventarizácia (creating list) f, inventúra (updating) f Spanish: inventario (es) m Swedish: inventering (sv) c

Verb

inventory (third-person singular simple present inventories, present participle inventorying, simple past and past participle inventoried)

1. (transitive, operations) To take stock of the resources or items on hand; to produce an inventory.

   The main job of the night shift was to inventory the store, and restock when necessary.

Synonyms

• index
• inventorize
• take inventory
• take stock

Translations

to take stock of the resources or items on hand; to produce an inventory

Bulgarian: инвентаризирам (inventariziram) Catalan: inventariar (ca) Dutch: inventariseren (nl) Finnish: inventoida French: inventorier (fr) Galician: inventariar German: Inventur machen Hungarian: leltároz (hu) Portuguese: inventariar, fazer o inventário Spanish: inventariar (es) Swedish: inventera (sv)

Further reading

• inventory in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• inventory in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911