ingenious
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- engenious (obsolete)
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Middle French ingénieux, from Old French engenious, from Latin ingeniōsus (“endowed with good natural capacity, gifted with genius”), from ingenium (“innate or natural quality, natural capacity, genius”), from in- (“in”) + gignere (“to produce”), Old Latin genere. See also engine.
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
ingenious (comparative more ingenious, superlative most ingenious)
- (of a person) Displaying genius or brilliance; inventive.
- This fellow is ingenious; he fixed a problem I didn't even know I had.
- (of a thing) Characterized by genius; cleverly done or contrived.
- That is an ingenious model of the atom.
- Witty; showing originality or sagacity
- 1834, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Francesca Carrara, volume 1, page 147:
- I have scarcely recovered the surprise of the ingenious question, before I meet another surprise in the still more ingenious answer
Usage notes[edit]
Do not confuse with ingenuous.
Synonyms[edit]
- See also Thesaurus:witty
- See also Thesaurus:intelligent
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
displaying genius or brilliance; tending to invent
|
|
characterized by genius; cleverly done or contrived
|
witty; original; shrewd; adroit; keen; sagacious
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
|
References[edit]
- “ingenious” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- “ingenious” in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵenh₁-
- English terms borrowed from Middle French
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Old Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/iːniəs
- Rhymes:English/iːniəs/4 syllables
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations