'Invention' definitions:
Definition of 'invention'
From: WordNet
noun
The creation of something in the mind [syn: invention, innovation, excogitation, conception, design]
noun
A creation (a new device or process) resulting from study and experimentation [syn: invention, innovation]
noun
The act of inventing
Definition of 'Invention'
From: GCIDE
- Invention \In*ven"tion\, n. [L. inventio: cf. F. invention. See Invent.] [1913 Webster]
- 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. [1913 Webster]
- As the search of it [truth] is the duty, so the invention will be the happiness of man. --Tatham. [1913 Webster]
- 2. That which is invented; an original contrivance or construction; a device; as, this fable was the invention of Esop; that falsehood was her own invention; she patented five inventions. [1913 Webster +PJC]
- We entered by the drawbridge, which has an invention to let one fall if not premonished. --Evelyn. [1913 Webster]
- 3. Thought; idea. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- 4. A fabrication to deceive; a fiction; a forgery; a falsehood. [1913 Webster]
- Filling their hearers With strange invention. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- 5. The faculty of inventing; imaginative faculty; skill or ingenuity in contriving anything new; as, a man of invention. [1913 Webster]
- They lay no less than a want of invention to his charge; a capital crime, . . . for a poet is a maker. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
- 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. [1913 Webster]
- Invention of the cross (Eccl.), a festival celebrated May 3d, in honor of the finding of our Savior's cross by St. Helena. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'invention'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- absolute music,
- adaptation,
- air varie,
- aleatory,
- aleatory music,
- apparition,
- arrangement,
- artifact,
- authorship,
- beginning,
- brainchild,
- breakthrough,
- bringing to light,
- bubble,
- canard,
- casual discovery,
- catching,
- chamber music,
- chamber orchestra,
- chance discovery,
- child,
- chimera,
- coinage,
- composition,
- conception,
- concoction,
- contraption,
- contrivance,
- contriving,
- creation,
- creative effort,
- creativeness,
- creativity,
- creature,
- crowning achievement,
- delirium,
- descant,
- detection,
- determination,
- determining,
- development,
- device,
- devising,
- disclosure,
- discovery,
- distillation,
- distinguishment,
- effect,
- eidolon,
- electronic music,
- end product,
- espial,
- essence,
- etude,
- excavation,
- exercise,
- exhumation,
- exposure,
- extract,
- extravaganza,
- fable,
- fabrication,
- fake,
- falsehood,
- falsification,
- fancy,
- fantasque,
- fantasy,
- fecundity,
- fertile mind,
- fertility,
- fib,
- fiction,
- figment,
- find,
- finding,
- finding out,
- forgery,
- fruit,
- gadget,
- generation,
- gizmo,
- hallucination,
- handiwork,
- harmonization,
- hatching,
- idle fancy,
- illusion,
- imagery,
- imagination,
- imagining,
- improvisation,
- incidental music,
- ingenuity,
- innovation,
- instrumental music,
- insubstantial image,
- introduction,
- inventiveness,
- issue,
- leap,
- lie,
- locating,
- location,
- lucky strike,
- maggot,
- make-believe,
- making do,
- manufacture,
- masterpiece,
- masterwork,
- mintage,
- myth,
- Nachtmusik,
- neologism,
- new mintage,
- new phase,
- nocturne,
- novelty,
- offspring,
- opera,
- opus,
- opuscule,
- orchestration,
- original,
- originality,
- origination,
- outcome,
- outgrowth,
- phantasm,
- phantom,
- piece,
- pregnant imagination,
- prevarication,
- product,
- production,
- productivity,
- program music,
- prolificacy,
- recognition,
- rediscovery,
- result,
- revelation,
- ricercar,
- romance,
- score,
- serendipity,
- sham,
- sick fancy,
- sonata,
- sonatina,
- spotting,
- story,
- strike,
- string orchestra,
- string quartet,
- study,
- tale,
- tall story,
- tall tale,
- teeming imagination,
- theme and variations,
- thick-coming fancies,
- treasure trove,
- trio,
- trip,
- trouvaille,
- trove,
- uncovering,
- unearthing,
- vapor,
- variation,
- vision,
- whim,
- whimsy,
- wildest dreams,
- work,
- yarn