INGENUITY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Ingenuity

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/ɪndʒənˈuəti/ Listen

noun

Ingenuity n.

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."

Curiousness, or cleverness in design or contrivance; as, the ingenuity of a plan, or of mechanism. "He gives... To artist ingenuity and skill."

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."

Synonyms: Inventiveness; ingeniousness; skill; cunning; cleverness; genius. 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.

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Etymology of 'Ingenuity'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ingenuity" Quotes from Famous Books

... visited to-day were filthy and wretched in the extreme, and exhibited that most deplorable consequence of ignorance and an abject condition, the inability of the inhabitants to secure and improve even such pitiful comfort as might yet be achieved by them. Instead of the order, neatness, and ingenuity which might convert even these miserable hovels into tolerable residences, there was the careless, reckless, filthy indolence which even the brutes do not exhibit in their lairs and nests, and which seemed ...

— Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation - 1838-1839 • Frances Anne Kemble

... basket, and escaped with the contents! We since heard that the robbers were Burman soldiers belonging to the camp at Kumaroot, whither they carried their spoils. They certainly deserved infinite credit for the ingenuity they manifested, and for the manner in which they turned the laugh against us, by showing, that the very moment they chose for their depredations, was one when a strict search was ...

— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, - Issue 275, September 29, 1827 • Various

... as they come from His pen. His most useful characters are remote and unavailable. It would seem that the villain was likely to have his way. The Author must defeat him, if possible, with some stroke of ingenuity. For this He was ...

— In the Days of Poor Richard • Irving Bacheller

... must," said Raby. "I have gone as far off the straight path as a gentleman can. And I wish we may not repent our ingenuity. Deceive a mother about her son! what can ...

— Put Yourself in His Place • Charles Reade

... pressing her hard. All her affectionate ingenuity could not furnish an argument against such home truths. "Let us drop this hateful subject," said she, hastily; "I cannot bear ...

— Flora Lyndsay - or, Passages in an Eventful Life • Susan Moodie

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