invention
NounOpen English WordNet
Noun (3)inventions
- the creation of something in the mindSynonyms: innovationexcogitationconceptiondesignType of creativity, creativenessKinds contrivance, concoction
- a creation (a new device or process) resulting from study and experimentationSynonyms: innovationType of creation
- the act of inventingType of creating by mental actsKinds devisal, neologism
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: 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.— Edward 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; she patented five inventions.
We entered by the drawbridge, which has an invention to let one fall if not premonished.— John Evelyn
3. Thought; idea. William Shakespeare
4. A fabrication to deceive; a fiction; a forgery; a falsehood.
Filling their hearers With strange invention.— William Shakespeare
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.— John 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 Church, a festival celebrated May 3d, in honor of the finding of our Savior's cross by St. Helena.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54 · with additions: +PJC