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ingenuity

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in⋅ge⋅nu⋅i⋅ty

  [in-juh-noo-i-tee, -nyoo-]
–noun, plural -ties for 3.
1. the quality of being cleverly inventive or resourceful; inventiveness: a designer of great ingenuity.
2. cleverness or skillfulness of conception or design: a device of great ingenuity.
3. an ingenious contrivance or device.
4. Obsolete. ingenuousness.
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Origin:
1590–1600; < L ingenuitās innate virtue, etc. (see ingenuous, -ity ); current senses by assoc. with ingenious
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.
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in·ge·nu·i·ty   (ĭn'jə-nōō'ĭ-tē, -nyōō'-)   
n.   pl. in·ge·nu·i·ties

  1. Inventive skill or imagination; cleverness.

  2. Imaginative and clever design or construction: a narrative plot of great ingenuity.

  3. An ingenious or imaginative contrivance.

  4. Obsolete Ingenuousness.


[Latin ingenuitās, frankness (influenced by ingenious), from ingenuus, ingenuous; see ingenuous.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

ingenuity 
1598, "honor, nobility," from L. ingenuitas "condtion of a free-born man, noble-mindedness," from ingenuus (see ingenuous). Etymologically, this word belongs to ingenuous, though it was so constantly confused in meaning with ingenious (q.v.) in 17c. that its form and sense now partake of that word, and with the meaning "capacity for invention or construction" (first attested 1649).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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