inventiveness

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,707 of 15,258leans written

Inventiveness is skill at thinking up new things. Sheer inventiveness, the inventiveness of the design, admire his inventiveness.

It praises the supply of ideas rather than the quality of any one, which is what separates it from imagination. It is often used of solutions made under a tight limit.

Definitions of inventiveness

1nouninventivenessSkill at thinking up new things.C1
“The inventiveness of the staging did more than the budget could have.”

inventiveness is a skill.

Where it comes from

Medieval Latin
inventivus
Old French
inventif
Middle English
inventif
English
inventive
English, today
inventiveness

From inventive + -ness. inventive comes from Middle English inventif, inventyfe, borrowed from Old French inventif, borrowed from Medieval Latin inventivus. by surface analysis, invent + -ive.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

inventiveness in the wild

The expression "inventiveness" is sometimes used as well.
Inventive step and non-obviousness
Nevertheless, the inventiveness of the technique impressed many when the record first came out.
Heebie Jeebies (composition)
Targone gained notoriety for his inventiveness as a military engineer in the Siege of Ostend and the Siege of La Rochelle.
Pompeo Targone
Carnegie Magazine wrote that it is "a pleasant reminder of the inventiveness and cleverness of that unique artist O.
Conscience in Art
New York magazine described it as a "wonderful union of clarity and inventiveness".
The Mangan Inheritance

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the inventif family

inventive

inventiveness — used about once every 27,725 pages · #13,707 · point at the bar for the others

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