ingenuity
ingenuity Lexical Profile
ingenuity Game Scores & Validity
• noun
The quality of being clever, original, and inventive, especially in solving problems or designing things.
"The engineering team showed remarkable ingenuity in repairing the damaged satellite from millions of miles away."
A clever or inventive device, contrivance, or design.
"The exhibition featured a collection of mechanical ingenuities created by 19th-century clockmakers."
Word Nuance & Usage
Modern 'ingenuity' serves as the noun form of 'ingenious' (clever and inventive), even though it originally derived from 'ingenuous' (frank and innocent), whose sense is now usually expressed by 'ingenuousness'.
• Rhymes for ingenuity
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late 16th century from Latin ingenuitas ('nobility, frankness'), from ingenuus ('native, freeborn, frank'). By the 17th century, it became associated with 'ingenious' (from Latin ingenium, 'innate talent or wit') and adopted its primary modern sense of cleverness.