INGENUITIES

Noun

ingenuities

plural of ingenuity

Source: Wiktionary


INGENUITY

In`ge*nu"i*ty, n. Etym: [L. ingenuitas ingenuousness: cf. F. ingénuité. 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 heat; ingeniuousness. [Obs.] The stings and remores 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.

– 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.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

22 November 2024

SHEET

(noun) (nautical) a line (rope or chain) that regulates the angle at which a sail is set in relation to the wind


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Coffee Trivia

The Boston Tea Party helped popularize coffee in America. The hefty tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773 resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. In the lead up to the Revolutionary War, it became patriotic to sip java instead of tea. The Civil War made the drink more pervasive. Coffee helped energize tired troops, and drinking it became an expression of freedom.

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