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View synonyms for invention

invention

[ in-ven-shuhn ]

noun

  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, especially 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.


invention

/ ɪnˈvɛnʃən /

noun

  1. the act or process of inventing
  2. something that is invented
  3. patent law the discovery or production of some new or improved process or machine that is both useful and is not obvious to persons skilled in the particular field
  4. creative power or ability; inventive skill
  5. euphemistic.
    a fabrication; lie
  6. (in traditional rhetoric) one of the five steps in preparing a speech or discourse: the process of finding suitable topics on which to talk or write
  7. music a short piece consisting of two or three parts usually in imitative counterpoint
  8. sociol the creation of a new cultural pattern or trait


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Derived Forms

  • inˈventional, adjective
  • inˈventionless, adjective

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Other Words From

  • in·vention·al adjective
  • in·vention·less adjective
  • prein·vention noun
  • self-in·vention noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of invention1

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English invencio(u)n, from Latin inventiōn-, stem of inventiō “discovery, finding out”; equivalent to invent + -ion

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Example Sentences

Yes, keyword or contextual-based advertising is an old tactic, I am not talking about the invention of the wheel.

From the earliest days of the crisis, the Institute’s alumni, labs, and companies have been reworking their research and inventions to meet these pressing challenges.

Many useful inventions, he notes, combine existing technologies in such new ways.

Yet their work includes approaches common to the process of invention.

So, for some people, invention is a way to reduce friction in their lives.

No, the tools used are just old fashioned, and the images produced are drawings, hardly a new invention.

The basic premise that Christians should expect to suffer and be persecuted is not an invention of Rev. Sproul.

The maxim proved true: Necessity is the mother of invention.

The invention of farming was the initial cause of wars that created peace.

The titles of two competing 16th-century world maps nicely capture the tension between reflection and invention.

One of the simplest of these childish tricks is the invention of an excuse for not instantly obeying a command, as "Come here!"

Wordsworth has illustrated how an unwise and importunate demand for a reason from a child may drive him into invention.

Each new invention threw thousands of hand-workers out of employment.

Dynamite, by the good fortune of invention, came to the revolutionary at the very moment when it was most wanted.

This epoch-making invention, introduced in 1832, rendered possible extraordinary developments.

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