ingenious

English

Alternative forms

• engenious (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French ingénieux, from Old French engenious, from Latin ingeniōsus (“endowed with good natural capacity, gifted with genius”), from ingenium (“innate or natural quality, natural capacity, genius”), from in- (“in”) +‎ gignere (“to produce”), Old Latin genere. See also engine.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈd͡ʒiːnjəs/, /ɪnˈd͡ʒiːniəs/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -iːniəs
• Hyphenation: in‧ge‧nious

Adjective

ingenious (comparative more ingenious, superlative most ingenious)

1. (of a person) Displaying genius or brilliance; inventive.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:intelligent

   This fellow is ingenious; he fixed a problem I didn’t even know I had.

2. (of a thing) Characterized by genius; cleverly contrived or done.

   Synonym: artful

   That is an ingenious model of the atom.

   • 1928, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen”, in The Tower, page 32:

     Many ingenious lovely things are gone / That seemed sheer miracle to the multitude, / protected from the circle of the moon / That pitches common things about.

3. Showing originality or sagacity; witty.

   Synonyms: adroit, keen, sagacious, shrewd; see also Thesaurus:witty

   He sent me an ingenious reply to an email.

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Francesca Carrara. , volume I, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 147:

     I have scarcely recovered the surprise of the ingenious question, before I meet another surprise in the still more ingenious answer

Usage notes

Not to be confused with ingenuous.

Related terms

Translations

References

• “ingenious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “ingenious”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.