The boss made invidious distinctions between employees. inevitably, his remarkable success attracted the invidious attention of the other sales representatives

Recent Examples on the Web

The more invidious reason to claim that people are born with certain traits is to avoid having to help people do any better. Eugenia Cheng, Wired, "How to Undo Gender Stereotypes in Math—With Math!," 25 Aug. 2020

Again and again, the metaphor gets invoked by leading politicians, typically as a warning against a hidden, invidious threat. Ben Zimmer, WSJ, "‘Trojan Horse’: A Strategy That Keeps Hiding in Plain Sight," 21 Aug. 2020

When Britain’s death toll from the virus first surpassed those of other European countries in May, Johnson argued that country-to-country comparisons were invidious because governments collect and analyze data differently. BostonGlobe.com, "UK has Europe’s worst surge in deaths during pandemic, study says," 31 July 2020

The Wirecard fraud has again brought to public attention the invidious negligence of some auditors. Karthik Ramanna, Fortune, "The real problem with accounting firms: They don’t reward auditors that challenge clients," 11 July 2020

Tech companies are increasingly facing the invidious choice of which side of the divide to be on. The Economist, "Schumpeter Can Zoom be trusted with users’ secrets?," 20 June 2020

In many respects, Mr Trump has placed military leaders in an invidious position. The Economist, "No longer his generals America’s top brass break with Donald Trump," 7 June 2020

Because there is only one motive—to realize a maximum of benefit at a minimum of cost—those who do not flourish are losers in an invidious, Darwinian sense. Marilynne Robinson, The New York Review of Books, "What Kind of Country Do We Want?," 27 May 2020

We are increasingly divided by misinformation and invidious messaging. Jason Karlawish, STAT, "A pandemic plan was in place. Trump abandoned it — and science — in the face of Covid-19," 17 May 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'invidious.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.