Ingenious Meaning
/ɪnˈd͡ʒiːnjəs/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjOf a person, displaying genius or brilliance; inventive.
adjOf a thing, characterized by genius; cleverly contrived or done.
Sentence Examples
Despite adversity, the ingenious man achieved worldwide fame.
Edison was an ingenious person.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The engineer designed an ____ device that turned ocean waves into electricity.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The young boy came up with an ____ way to fix his broken toy using only a rubber band.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 1928, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen”, in The Tower, page 32:
"I have scarcely recovered the surprise of the ingenious question, before I meet another surprise in the still more ingenious answer"
— 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 147:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The engineer designed an ____ device that turned ocean waves into electricity.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The young boy came up with an ____ way to fix his broken toy using only a rubber band.