inventive
Americanadjective
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apt at inventing or thinking up new machines or devices, methods, solutions, etc., or at improvising from what is at hand; innovative or ingenious.
Luckily the bike mechanic is a most inventive person—you’ll be surprised at what he can do with a piece of wire and some scrap metal.
-
apt at creating with the imagination.
The delightful and tirelessly inventive storyteller is back with an animated stop-motion adventure.
-
being the product of imagination, resourcefulness, etc.; creative and original.
It’s an enthralling, inventive, and wholly unique exhibit from an artist without peer.
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relating to or used for inventing.
These recordings captured the musician at the height of her inventive power.
adjective
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skilled or quick at contriving; ingenious; resourceful
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characterized by inventive skill
an inventive programme of work
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of or relating to invention
Other Word Forms
- inventively adverb
- inventiveness noun
- preinventive adjective
- uninventive adjective
- uninventively adverb
Etymology
Origin of inventive
First recorded in 1400–50; invent + -ive; replacing late Middle English inventif, from Old French
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s rich, layered, and more inventive than the usual.
From Salon
Will Self burst onto the literary scene in 1991 with a collection of inventive and excessive short stories that was titled “The Quantity Theory of Insanity.”
It's easy to see why more inventive Easter creations keep appearing on our shelves - people like to buy them.
From BBC
I knew she was brave, but had no idea she could be this inventive.
From Literature
The actor stars in an oddly but infectiously upbeat production on Broadway, full of inventive audience participation, about a man shadowed by his mother’s depression.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
