inventory

Etymology

From Middle English inventorie, from Medieval Latin inventōrium, alteration of 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.vənˌtɔɹ.i/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈɪn.vən.tɹi/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈven.t(ə).ɹi/, /ˈɪn-/

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: Academia Sinica, →ISBN, →OCLC, 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..

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.

   • 2024, Jasper Fforde, Red Side Story, Hodder & Stoughton, page 235:

     ‘Now,’ said Jethro, ‘we’re inventorying all the stock today, do you want to lend a hand?’

Further reading

• “inventory”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “inventory”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “inventory”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.