ingenious
/ɪnˈd͡ʒiːnjəs/ adjective
Forms engenious
- adjective Of a person, displaying genius, ingenuity or brilliance; inventive. “This fellow is ingenious; he fixed a problem I didn’t even know I had.”
- adjective Of a thing, characterized by genius; cleverly contrived or done. “That is an ingenious model of the atom.”
- adjective Showing originality or sagacity; characterized by ingenuity; witty. “He sent me an ingenious reply to an email.”
Synonyms
astute brainy bright brilliant clever educated genius gifted hivey intellectual intelligent keen knowledgeable piquant quick quick on the uptake quick-witted rational sagacious savvy cunning
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.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Possessed of genius, or the faculty of invention; skillful or promp to invent; having an aptitude to contrive, or to form new combinations; as, an ingenious author, mechanic.
- adjective Proseeding from, pertaining to, or characterized by, genius or ingenuity; of curious design, structure, or mechanism; as, an ingenious model, or machine; an ingenious scheme, contrivance, etc. Thus men go wrong with an ingenious skill. Cowper.
Etymology [L. ingeniosus, fr. ingenium innate or natural quality, natural capacity, genius: cf. F. ingénieux. See Engine.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “ingenious”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details