Definition of inversion. Learn more. The term ‘inversion’ refers to the practice of changing the conventional placement of words. Inversion is a figure intended to give emphasis to the thought by a change from the natural order of the words in a sentence. a (1) : a change in normal word order especially : the placement of a verb before its subject. inversion meaning: 1. a situation in which something is changed so that it is the opposite of what it was before, or…. inversion - a chemical process in which the direction of optical rotation of a substance is reversed from dextrorotatory to levorotary or vice versa. It is a literary practice typical of the older classical poetry genre. Inversion. Inversion, also called anastrophe, in literary style and rhetoric, the syntactic reversal of the normal order of the words and phrases in a sentence, as, in English, the placing of an adjective after the noun it modifies (“the form divine”), a verb before its subject (“Came the dawn”), or a noun preceding its preposition (“worlds between”). Inversion and an astrophe are the same thing. Writers will use inversion to maintain a particular meter or rhyme scheme in poetry, or to emphasize a specific word in prose. (2) : the process or result of changing or reversing the relative positions of the notes of a musical interval, chord, or phrase. 1 : a reversal of position, order, form, or relationship: such as. Inversion is a term used to refer to the inverting of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase. chemical action, chemical change, chemical process - (chemistry) any process determined by the atomic and molecular composition and structure of the substances involved. Inversion.