Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Invention
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. Tatham.
We entered by the drawbridge, which has an
invention
to let one fall if not premonished. Evelyn.
3.
Thought; idea.
Shak.
4.
A fabrication to deceive; a fiction; a forgery; a falsehood.
Filling their hearers
With strange
With strange
invention
. 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. 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
(Eccl.)
, a festival celebrated May 3d, in honor of the finding of our Savior’s cross by St. Helena.
Webster 1828 Edition
Invention
INVEN'TION
,Noun.
1.
The action or operation of finding out something new; the contrivance of that which did not before exist; as the invention of logarithms; the invention of the art of printing; the invention of the orrery. Invention differs from discovery. Invention is applied to the contrivance and production of something that did not before exist. Discovery brings to light that which existed before, but which was not know. We are indebted to invention for the thermometer and barometer. We are indebted to discovery for the knowledge of the isles in the Pacific ocean, and for the knowledge of galvanism, and many species of earth not formerly known. This distinction is important, though not always observed.2.
That which is invented. The cotton gin is the invention of Whitney; the steam boat is the invention of Fulton. The Doric,Ionic and Corinthian orders are said to be inventions of the Greeks; the Tuscan and Composite are inventions of the Latins.3.
Forgery; fiction. Fables are the inventions of ingenious men.4.
In painting, the finding or choice of the objects which are to enter into the composition of the piece.5.
In poetry, it is applied to whatever the poet adds to the history of the subject.6.
In rhetoric, the finding and selecting of arguments to prove and illustrate the point in view.7.
The power of inventing; that skill or ingenuity which is or may be employed in contriving any thing new. Thus we say, a man of invention.8.
Discovery; the finding of things hidden or before unknown. [Less proper.]Definition 2024
Invention
Invention
See also: invention
invention
invention
See also: Invention
English
Noun
invention (plural inventions)
- Something invented.
- My new invention will let you alphabetize your matchbook collection in half the usual time.
- I'm afraid there was no burglar. It was all the housekeeper's invention.
- 1944 November 28, Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe, Meet Me in St. Louis, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer:
- Warren Sheffield is telephoning Rose long distance at half past six. […] Personally, I wouldn't marry a man who proposed to me over an invention.
- 2013 October 5, “The widening gyre”, in The Economist, volume 409, number 8856:
- British inventions have done more to influence the shape of the modern world than those of any other country. Many—football, the steam engine and Worcestershire sauce, to take a random selection—have spread pleasure, goodwill and prosperity. Others—the Maxim gun, the Shrapnel shell and jellied eels—have not.
- The act of inventing.
- The invention of the printing press was probably the most significant innovation of the medieval ages.
- 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:
- Digging deeper, the invention of eyeglasses is an elaboration of the more fundamental development of optics technology. The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, […] .
- The capacity to invent.
- It took quite a bit of invention to come up with a plan, but we did it.
- (music) A small, self-contained composition, particularly those in J.S. Bach’s Two- and Three-part Inventions.
- I particularly like the inventions in C-minor.
- 1880, George Grove (editor and entry author), A Dictionary of Music and Musicians II, London: Macmillan & Co., page 15, Invention:
- INVENTION. A term used by J. S. Bach, and probably by him only, for small pianoforte pieces — 15 in 2 parts and 15 in 3 parts — each developing a single idea, and in some measure answering to the Impromptu of a later day.
- (archaic) The act of discovering or finding; the act of finding out; discovery.
- That judicial method which serveth best for the invention of truth.
Synonyms
Related terms
Translations
something invented
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act of inventing
capacity to invent
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small self-contained musical composition
References
- J[ohn] A. Simpson and E[dward] S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ISBN 978-0-19-861186-8.
French
Etymology
Borrowing from Latin inventiō, inventiōnem, from invenio.
Pronunciation
Noun
invention f (plural inventions)