innovative
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of innovative
Explanation
Something innovative is new and original. If you love to experiment and find new ways to do things, you are an innovative person. Innovative, like nova, novel, and novice, comes from the Latin novus, which means new. Something innovative renews or alters the way something has been done. You can use innovative to describe the thing or the person that made it. If your English teacher objects to your experimental writing style, tell him, "I'm an innovative writer making innovative sentences!" Antonyms are unoriginal and hackneyed.
Vocabulary lists containing innovative
Brand Spankin' New: Words with Neo- and Nov-
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "I"
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Mardi Gras: Fun
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Maryanna Saenko, co-founder of the Future Ventures fund, which backs innovative tech startups, discovered Arion when she was pregnant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
Ultimately, Nvidia might be just another AT&T — a company with such an innovative product, it just can’t lose.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026
But they did have one potentially innovative and surprising, if disconcerting, solution to our national public health information crisis: A.I. has the potential to help stave off a conspiratorial catastrophe during the next pandemic.
From Slate ● Aug. 26, 2026
It also said it was investing £3.5m in "innovative youth homelessness projects" including Housing First for Youth, external to help vulnerable young people "avoid or move on from homelessness".
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
Armed with harmony, rhythm, a large palette of chords, and most importandy the ability to write all of these down, its most innovative sounds expanded rapidly throughout Europe.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.