Other forms: inventions
An invention is a new thing nobody had ever made before. A clever invention, the invention of printing, patent an invention.
Most are found independently by several people at once, because they become possible at a particular moment rather than occurring to a genius — which is why patent disputes over priority are so common. An invention is also a lie: a complete invention. Note that the Latin means a coming upon, from invenire, to find.
1nouninventionA new thing nobody had ever made before.
“The printing press was one of the most important inventions in history.”
2nounnounSomething made up.
“His story about being attacked by a bear was pure invention.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
invention is a creation.
Latin inventio comes from invenire, to find or come upon — in plus venire, to come. Advent and venue come from the same coming.
Middle French
invencion
Latin
inventiō
Middle English
invencion
English, today
invention
Built from
From Middle English invencion, invencioun, from Latin inventiō either directly or via Middle French invencion, from Latin inveniō (“to discover, find, invent”), from in- (“in-: in, into”) + veniō (“to come”). a doublet of inventio. by surface analysis, invent + -ion. Displaced native orþanc.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA