ingenious
pronunciation
How to pronounce ingenious in British English:
UK [ɪnˈdʒiːniəs]
How to pronounce ingenious in American English:
US [ɪnˈdʒiːniəs]
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- Adjective:
- (used of persons or artifacts) marked by independence and creativity in thought or action
- skillful (or showing skill) in adapting means to ends
- showing inventiveness and skill
Word Origin
- ingenious
- ingenious: [15] Ingenious used to be a more elevated term than it is today. To begin with it meant ‘highly intelligent’, but already by the 16th century it was starting to come down in the world somewhat to ‘cleverly inventive’. It comes, partly via French ingénieux, from Latin ingeniōsus, a derivative of ingenium ‘natural talent, skill’ (a word which, like English gene, generate, genital, etc, goes back ultimately to Indo-European *gen- ‘produce’, and was also the source of English engine).Its formal similarity to the distantly related ingenuous has led in the past to its being used for ‘honest, open, frank’, and indeed its semantic derivative ingenuity ‘quality of being ingenious’ [16] belongs etymologically to ingenuous.=> gene, general, generate, genital
- ingenious (adj.)
- early 15c., "intellectual, talented," from Middle French ingénieux "clever, ingenious" (Old French engeignos), from Latin ingeniosus "of good capacity, full of intellect; clever, gifted with genius," from ingenium "innate qualities, ability," literally "that which is inborn," from in- "in" (see in- (2)) + gignere, from PIE *gen- "produce" (see genus). Sense of "skillful, clever at contrivance" first recorded 1540s. In a sense of "crafty, clever, skillful" Middle English had enginous (mid-14c.), from Old French engeignos, also engineful "skillful (in war)" (c. 1300). Related: Ingeniously; ingeniousness.
Synonym
Example
- 1. The buildings displayed ingenious adaptations to galle 's balmy climate .
- 2. Turning that ingenious fiction into a viable reality is another matter altogether .
- 3. But in fact , they 're so ingenious that it took until 3500 b. c.for someone to invent them .
- 4. An ingenious way to get kids to eat healthy : give cafeterias a psychology lesson
- 5. Proponents of eurobonds have an ingenious answer to both these objections .