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Ingenuity definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

INGENU'ITY, n. The quality or power of ready invention; quickness or acuteness in combining ideas, or in forming new combinations; ingeniousness; skill; used of persons. How many machines for saving labor has the ingenuity of men devised and constructed.
1. Curiousness in design, the effect of ingenuity; as the ingenuity of a plan or of mechanism.
2. Openness of heart; fairness; candor. [This sense of the word was formerly common, and is found in good authors down to the age of Locke, and even later; but it is now wholly obsolete. In lieu of it, ingenousness is used.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the power of creative imagination [syn: inventiveness, ingeniousness, ingenuity, cleverness]
2: the property of being ingenious; "a plot of great ingenuity"; "the cleverness of its design" [syn: ingenuity, ingeniousness, cleverness]

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -ties) Date: circa 1592 1. obsolete candor, ingenuousness 2. a. skill or cleverness in devising or combining ; inventiveness b. cleverness or aptness of design or contrivance 3. an ingenious device or contrivance

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. skill in devising or contriving; ingeniousness. Etymology: L ingenuitas ingenuousness (as INGENUOUS): Engl. meaning by confusion of INGENIOUS with INGENUOUS

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Ingenuity In`ge*nu"i*ty, n. [L. ingenuitas ingenuousness: cf. F. ing['e]nuit['e]. See Ingenuous.] 1. The quality or power of ready invention; quickness or acuteness in forming new combinations; ingeniousness; skill in devising or combining. All the means which human ingenuity has contrived. --Blair. 2. Curiousness, or cleverness in design or contrivance; as, the ingenuity of a plan, or of mechanism. He gives . . . To artist ingenuity and skill. --Cowper. 3. Openness of heart; ingenuousness. [Obs.] The stings and remorses of natural ingenuity, a principle that men scarcely ever shake off, as long as they carry anything of human nature about them. --South. Syn: Inventiveness; ingeniousness; skill; cunning; cleverness; genius. Usage: Ingenuity, Cleverness. Ingenuity is a form of genius, and cleverness of talent. The former implies invention, the letter a peculiar dexterity and readiness of execution. Sir James Mackintosh remarks that the English overdo in the use of the word clever and cleverness, applying them loosely to almost every form of intellectual ability.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Ingenuity is skill at working out how to achieve things or skill at inventing new things. Inspecting the nest may require some ingenuity.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Inventiveness, ingeniousness, acuteness, skill, readiness, ability, capableness, capacity, faculty, aptitude, aptness, cleverness, knack, turn, gift, genius.

Moby Thesaurus

ability, acuteness, address, adeptness, adroitness, airmanship, aptness, art, artfulness, artisanship, artistry, bravura, brilliance, canniness, capability, capacity, cleverness, command, competence, control, coordination, craft, craftsmanship, creativeness, creativity, cunning, deftness, dexterity, dexterousness, dextrousness, diplomacy, efficiency, expertise, facility, faculty, fecundity, fertile mind, fertility, finesse, flair, genius, gift, grace, grip, handiness, horsemanship, imagination, imaginativeness, ingeniousness, invention, inventiveness, keenness, knack, know-how, marksmanship, mastership, mastery, originality, practical ability, pregnant imagination, productivity, proficiency, prolificacy, prowess, quickness, readiness, resource, resourcefulness, savoir-faire, savvy, seamanship, sharpness, shrewdness, skill, skillfulness, smartness, style, tact, tactfulness, talent, technical brilliance, technical mastery, technical skill, technique, teeming imagination, timing, virtuosity, wit, wizardry, workmanship