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in⋅ven⋅tion
[in-ven-shuh
n] 
| 1. | the act of inventing. |
| 2. | U.S. Patent Law. a new, useful process, machine, improvement, etc., that did not exist previously and that is recognized as the product of some unique intuition or genius, as distinguished from ordinary mechanical skill or craftsmanship. |
| 3. | anything invented or devised. |
| 4. | the power or faculty of inventing, devising, or originating. |
| 5. | an act or instance of creating or producing by exercise of the imagination, esp. in art, music, etc. |
| 6. | something fabricated, as a false statement. |
| 7. | Sociology. the creation of a new culture trait, pattern, etc. |
| 8. | Music. a short piece, contrapuntal in nature, generally based on one subject. |
| 9. | Rhetoric. (traditionally) one of the five steps in speech preparation, the process of choosing ideas appropriate to the subject, audience, and occasion. |
| 10. | Archaic. the act of finding. |
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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| in·ven·tion (ĭn-věn'shən) n.
[Middle English invencioun, scheme, plan, from Old French invencion, a finding out, from Latin inventiō, inventiōn-, inventiveness, from inventus, past participle of invenīre, to find; see invent.] in·ven'tion·al adj. |
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Invention
In*ven"tion\, n. [L. inventio: cf. F. invention. See Invent.]1. The act of finding out or inventing; contrivance or construction of that which has not before existed; as, the invention of logarithms; the invention of the art of printing. As the search of it [truth] is the duty, so the invention will be the happiness of man. --Tatham. 2. That which is invented; an original contrivance or construction; a device; as, this fable was the invention of Esop; that falsehood was her own invention. We entered by the drawbridge, which has an invention to let one fall if not premonished. --Evelyn. 3. Thought; idea. --Shak. 4. A fabrication to deceive; a fiction; a forgery; a falsehood. Filling their hearers With strange invention. --Shak. 5. The faculty of inventing; imaginative faculty; skill or ingenuity in contriving anything new; as, a man of invention. They lay no less than a want of invention to his charge; a capital crime, . . . for a poet is a maker. --Dryden. 6. (Fine Arts, Rhet., etc.) The exercise of the imagination in selecting and treating a theme, or more commonly in contriving the arrangement of a piece, or the method of presenting its parts. Invention of the cross (Eccl.), a festival celebrated May 3d, in honor of the finding of our Savior's cross by St. Helena.Cite This Source
invention
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Main Entry: in·ven·tion
Function: noun
: a device, process, or discovery under U.S. patent law that is new and useful, that reflects extraordinary creative ability or skill, and that makes a distinct and recognized contribution to and advancement of science; also : the act or process of creating such an invention —compare AGGREGATION, COMBINATION, EQUIVALENT
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invention
in music, any of a number of markedly dissimilar compositional forms dating from the 16th century to the present. While its exact meaning has never been defined, the term has often been affixed to compositions of a novel, progressive character-i.e., compositions that do not fit established categories. The earliest-known use of the term in Premier livre des inventions musicales (1555; "First Book of Musical Inventions") by the Frenchman Clement Janequin clearly alludes to the composer's highly original programmatic chansons-secular French part-songs containing extramusical allusions (e.g., imitations of battle sounds and birdcalls). Similarly capricious or novel effects occur in John Dowland's Invention for Two to Play upon One Lute (1597); Lodovico da Viadana's Cento concerti ecclesiasticiNova inventione (1602; "One-Hundred Ecclesiastical ConcertiNew Invention"), the first sacred collection to require a basso continuo; and Antonio Vivaldi's Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'invenzione, Opus 8 (1720; "The Contest Between Harmony and Invention"), which contains, among others, a number of programmatic concerti
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