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

Other Word Forms

• inventional adjective
• inventionless adjective
• preinvention noun
• self-invention noun

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

Example Sentences

"This has nothing to do with historical memory: it is a purely arbitrary invention of recent years," Mavrogordatos wrote in Kathimerini.

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Efficiency comes from a choreography of tweaks among all those factors, not from any single invention or technique.

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For example, Japan’s invention of cultured pearls led to the decline of the UAE’s natural-pearl trading industry in the early 1900s, he notes.

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After all, forks were a relatively late invention, and not always welcome.

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Man-on-the-street interviews have existed since the invention of radio and TV news, and political campaigns and consumer marketers have occasionally used the format in their advertising.

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