Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
noun
The quality of being inventive; the faculty of inventing.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Synonyms: inventivity, resourcefulness, creativity, imagination
Antonyms: none provided
noun
the power of creative imagination
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: ingeniousness, ingenuity, cleverness
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: creativity, creativeness, creative thinking
Narrower terms: resource, resourcefulness, imagination
History
Etymology tree English inventive Proto-Germanic *-inōną Proto-Indo-European *-dyé- Proto-Germanic *-atjaną Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *-þuz Proto-Germanic *-assuz Proto-Germanic *-inassuz Proto-West Germanic *-nassī Old English -nes Middle English -nesse English -ness English inventiveness From inventive + -ness.
Across languages
24 source translations are retained for this English entry.
