Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The act or process of inventing: used a technique of her own invention.
- n. A new device, method, or process developed from study and experimentation: the phonograph, an invention attributed to Thomas Edison.
- n. A mental fabrication, especially a falsehood.
- n. Skill in inventing; inventiveness: "the invention and sweep of the staging” ( John Simon).
- n. Music A short composition developing a single theme contrapuntally.
- n. A discovery; a finding.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A finding. [Obsolete, or archaic, as in the phrase Invention of the Cross. See cross.]
- n. The act or process of finding out how to make something previously unknown, or how to do something in a new way; original contrivance; creation by a new use of means: as, the invention of printing; the invention of the steamengine, or of an improved steam-engine.
- n. That which is invented; something previously unknown, or some new modification of an existing thing, produced by an original use of means; an original contrivance or device. When used absolutely, it generally denotes a new mechanical device, or a new process in one of the useful arts.
- n. Specifically, in music, a short piece in which a single thought is worked out, usually contrapuntally, but with the comparative simplicity of an impromptu or of a study.
- n. The act of producing by the exercise of the imagination; mental fabrication or creation: as, the invention of plots or of excuses.
- n. The faculty or power of inventing; skill or ingenuity in original contrivance; the gift of finding out or producing new forms, methods, processes, effects, etc.; in art and lit., the exercise of imagination in production; the creative faculty.
- n. A coming in; arrival.
Wiktionary
- n. Something invented.
- n. The act of inventing.
- n. The capacity to invent.
- n. music A small, self-contained composition, particularly those in J.S. Bach’s Two- and Three-part Inventions.
- n. archaic The act of discovering or finding; the act of finding out; discovery.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of finding out or inventing; contrivance or construction of that which has not before existed
- n. That which is invented; an original contrivance or construction; a device
- n. Thought; idea.
- n. A fabrication to deceive; a fiction; a forgery; a falsehood.
- n. The faculty of inventing; imaginative faculty; skill or ingenuity in contriving anything new.
- n. (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.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the creation of something in the mind
- n. a creation (a new device or process) resulting from study and experimentation
- n. the act of inventing
Etymologies
- 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. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The main "invention" is nothing more than a particular combination of these elements designed to speed up the breeding cycle for selected traits, in order to make the animals more commercially profitable.”
“Unfortunately the US broadened the term invention, e.g. you don't have a technical requirement like in Europe, industrial application is weakened to "useful".”
Pushback on "Fair Use" for Patents, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“The 1970 Act did not exclude explicitly patents for computer related inventions, as computer technology at that point of time was relatively unknown, but the definition of the term invention itself excluded patents for computer programmes.”
“Even worse, IMO, the more difficult the invention is the less chance it will ever get to the public domain.”
Intellectual Property, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“This invention is a system that teleports a human ...”
“[0002] The basis for this invention is an event, referring to FIG. 1, occurring on May 2, 2004, in which the inventor ( 'he') personally experienced a full-body teleportation while walking to the bus stop ...”
“[0001] This invention is a system that teleports a human being through hyperspace from one location to another using a pulsed gravitational wave traveling through hyperspace.”
“This invention is a system that teleports a human being through hyperspace ...”
“Hassenpfeffer Archive: "This invention is a system that teleports a human being through hyperspace ...”
"This invention is a system that teleports a human being through hyperspace..."
“It is the business therefore of the memory to furnish to the mind those dormant ideas which it has present occasion for; in the having them ready at hand on all occasions, consists that which we call invention, fancy, and quickness of parts.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘invention’.
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-tion
vacation, suggestion, donation, condition, education, examination, federation, generation, imagination, invention, operation, pollution and 166 more...
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things (good)
things you may rise above with.
goto things (bad)
( randomness, events, situations, nouns )charity, benevolence, status, feral donkeys, instincts, mind, friendship, business, invention, research, discovery, art and 21 more...
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Rhetoric: The Harlot of the Arts
Words to do with rhetoric--study of, history of, practice of, theory of
rhetoric, paralepsis, invention, arrangement, style, memory, delivery, copia, consubstantiation, trope, colon, tricolon and 56 more...
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Visual Design
Words used in the visual design field
aethetics, composition, harmony, entropy, dissonance, concrete, line, invention, linear, mass, motion, order and 24 more...
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TECH - Steve Jobs
admonition, integrate, dominate, emerging, sensation, intense, mentor, intuition, elegant, chassis, culture, chronicle and 76 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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GPaX. Words.
excogitate, clarity, obscurity, tangential, interesting, regurgitate, mycelium, degradation, unladen, swallow, klein, quote and 120 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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sarahlena's list
Vocabularies
knee, admire, ambition, bend, experience, grow up, memory, opportunity, proud, regret, success, invent and 49 more...
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go-come words
come, welcome, venire, advent, venue, adventitious, adventure, avenue, circumvent, contravene, convene, convenient and 87 more...
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TN9 Lesson 108
achievement, Australia, bartender, comfort, confuse, design, dishonest, frustrating, grateful, ignorance, internet, invention and 19 more...
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Related to "Hermes"
Words related to my name, either by association or etymology.
Hermes, hermeneutic, mercury, messenger, herald, quicksilver, deity, god, Olympus, mythology, psychopomp, Hades and 39 more...
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history
invasion
pact
conquer
renaissance
congress
feudalism
empire
colonialism
revolution
enlightment
bourgeoise
civilization
migrat...invasion, pact, conquer, renaissance, congress, feudalism, empire, colonialism, revolution, enlightment, bourgeoise, civilization and 8 more...
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If she's a lady, I'm a Vermicious Knid
Words from Willy Wonka.
vermicious, bucket, salt, TV, beauregarde, gloop, golden ticket, nit, golden egg, gobstobber, everlasting, fizzy and 29 more...
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Back-to-Bach
A series of words discovered or revived from Paul Elie's Reinventing Bach
Lautenwerck, Cembalo, Radiola, Victrola, lautenwerck, well-tempered, Thuringia, Wanderjahr, fixity, 78s, Bonifatiuskirche, Widor and 26 more...
Tweets
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