ingenuity

From Latin ingenuitās.

• IPA^(key): /ˌɪnd͡ʒəˈn(j)uːəti/

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ingenuity (usually uncountable, plural ingenuities)

1. The ability to solve difficult problems in original, clever, and inventive ways; ingeniousness.

   The pyramids demonstrate the ingenuity of the ancient Egyptians.

   Poverty is the mother of ingenuity.

   Ingenuity is one of the characteristics of a beaver.

   • 1834, L E L, chapter XXIII, in Francesca Carrara. , volume III, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 189:

     Half the ingenuity lavished on news—by news we mean the topics of the day as connected with their own circle—half this ingenuity would set up a whole Society of Antiquaries, and immortalise at least a dozen of them.

   • 1960 February, R. C. Riley, “The London-Birmingham services - Past, Present and Future”, in Trains Illustrated, page 103:

     The heavy freight traffic which shares the double line between Paddington and Wolverhampton with the passenger traffic has taxed the ingenuity of the timetable planners.

2. (now rare) Ingenuousness; honesty, straightforwardness
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 17, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes , book II, London: Val Simmes for Edward Blount , →OCLC:

     And therefore I apply my selfe to ingenuitie, and ever to speake truth and what I think […].

• Yankee ingenuity

• ingenious
• ingenuous

• industriousness

• genuinity