Meanings
- not comparableEvery time; always, without change and without exception.
He is invariably late for meetings.
5 more examples
Near-synonyms: consistently, uniformly; see also Thesaurus:uniformly
“A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron;[…]. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, and from time to time squinting sideways, as usual, in the ever-renewed expectation that he might catch a glimpse of his stiff, retroussé moustache.
1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLCIn common with most Swiss Railways the standard of equipment and of operating efficiency is high, and stations and trains are invariably clean and well maintained.
1950 November, H. P. White, “The Furka-Oberalp Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 770Talented performers may be everywhere, but Movie Stars, capital M, capital S, are something else. They're the ones with definitive personas, with a forcefield around them that invariably pulls audiences into their orbit.
2021 February 9, Christina Newland, “Is Tom Hanks part of a dying breed of genuine movie stars?”, in BBC, archived from the original on 15 Apr 2022As a consequence of the previous rules, each of the sixty-four squares is invariably indicated by a unique combination of a letter and a number.
2022, “2023 Laws of Chess”, in FIDE, archived from the original on 16 Mar 2025, page 21Synonyms: invariously, unvaryingly, consistently, uniformly, always, consistently, constantly, immutably · Antonyms: variably, variously, varyingly
Synonyms & antonyms
adverbEvery time; always, without change and without exception.
More synonyms by meaning
adverbwithout variation or change, in every case
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*né
- Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
- Proto-Italic*n̥-
- Latinin-
- Middle Englishin-
- Englishin-
- Englishvariable
- Englishinvariable
- Proto-Indo-European*leyg-
- Proto-Germanic*līką
- Englishinvariably
From invariable + -ly.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian винаги, постоянно
- винаги (vinagi)always
- постоянно (postojanno)always
Catalan invariablement
- invariablementalways
Dutch onveranderlijk steevast
- onveranderlijk steevastalways
Finnish poikkeuksetta
- poikkeuksettaalways
French invariablement, constamment
- invariablementalways
- constammentalways
- perpétuellementalways
Hungarian mindig, minden esetben
- mindigalways
- minden esetbenalways
- kivétel nélkülalways
Polish niezmiennie, nieodmiennie
- niezmienniealways
- nieodmienniealways
Russian неизме́нно
- неизме́нно (neizménno)always
Spanish invariablemente
- invariablementealways
Cite this entry
invariably. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/invariably
“invariably.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/invariably. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “invariably,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/invariably.
Source: invariably on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.