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.
[Origin: 1300–50; ME invencio(u)n < L inventiōn- (s. of inventiō) a finding out, equiv. to invent(us) (see invent) + -iōn--ion]
The act or process of inventing: used a technique of her own invention.
A new device, method, or process developed from study and experimentation: the phonograph, an invention attributed to Thomas Edison.
A mental fabrication, especially a falsehood.
Skill in inventing; inventiveness: "the invention and sweep of the staging"(John Simon).
Music A short composition developing a single theme contrapuntally.
A discovery; a finding.
[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.]
c.1350, from L. inventionem (nom. inventio) "a finding, discovery," from inventus, pp. of invenire "devise, discover, find," from in- "in, on" + venire "to come" (see venue). Meaning of "thing invented" is first recorded 1513. Invent is from c.1475. Etymological sense preserved in Invention of the Cross, Church festival (May 3) celebrating the reputed finding of the Cross of the Crucifixion by Helena, mother of Constantine, in 326 C.E.
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.
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