Crossword clues for ingenuity
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ingenuity \In`ge*nu"i*ty\, n. [L. ingenuitas ingenuousness: cf. F. ing['e]nuit['e]. See Ingenuous.]
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The quality or power of ready invention; quickness or acuteness in forming new combinations; ingeniousness; skill in devising or combining.
All the means which human ingenuity has contrived.
--Blair. -
Curiousness, or cleverness in design or contrivance; as, the ingenuity of a plan, or of mechanism.
He gives . . . To artist ingenuity and skill.
--Cowper. -
Openness of heart; ingenuousness. [Obs.]
The stings and remorses of natural ingenuity, a principle that men scarcely ever shake off, as long as they carry anything of human nature about them.
--South.Syn: Inventiveness; ingeniousness; skill; cunning; cleverness; genius.
Usage: Ingenuity, Cleverness. Ingenuity is a form of genius, and cleverness of talent. The former implies invention, the letter a peculiar dexterity and readiness of execution. Sir James Mackintosh remarks that the English overdo in the use of the word clever and cleverness, applying them loosely to almost every form of intellectual ability.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1590s, "honor, nobility," from Middle French ingénuité and directly from Latin ingenuitatem (nominative ingenuitas) "condition of a free-born man," figuratively "generosity, noble-mindedness," from ingenuus (see ingenuous). Etymologically, this word belongs to ingenuous, but in 17c. ingenious and ingenuous so often were confused (even by Shakespeare) that ingenuity has acquired the meaning "capacity for invention or construction" (first attested 1640s).
Wiktionary
n. 1 The ability to solve difficult problems, often in original, clever, and inventive ways. 2 (context now rare English) ingenuousness; honesty, straightforwardness.
WordNet
n. the power of creative imagination [syn: inventiveness, ingeniousness, cleverness]
the property of being ingenious; "a plot of great ingenuity"; "the cleverness of its design" [syn: ingeniousness, cleverness]
Wikipedia
Ingenuity is the tenth studio album by Ultravox, released in 1994 with Sam Blue as lead vocalist amongst a new five-piece line-up (with Billy Currie the only remaining original member). The album was re-released in 2001 by Puzzle Records with a different cover.
Ingenuity is the quality of being clever, original, and inventive, often in the process of applying ideas to solve problems or meet challenges. Ingenuity (Ingenium) is the root Latin word for engineering. For example, the process of figuring out how to cross a mountain stream using a fallen log, building an airplane model from a sheet of paper, or starting a new company in a foreign culture all involve the exercising of ingenuity. Human ingenuity has led to various technological developments through applied science, and can also be seen in the development of new social organizations, institutions, and relationships. Ingenuity involves the most complex human thought processes, bringing together our thinking and acting both individually and collectively to take advantage of opportunities and/or overcome problems.
One example of how ingenuity is used conceptually can be found in the analysis of Thomas Homer-Dixon, building on that of Paul Romer, to refer to what is usually called instructional capital. In the case of Homer-Dixon, his use of the phrase 'ingenuity gap' denotes the space between a challenge and a solution. His particular contribution is to explore the social dimensions of ingenuity. Typically we think of ingenuity being used to build faster computers or more advanced medical treatments. Homer-Dixon argues that as the complexity of the world increases, our ability to solve the problems we face is becoming critical. Human ingenuity is also included in many school systems, with most teachers encouraging students to be educated in human ingenuity.
These challenges require more than improvements arising from physics, chemistry and biology, as one will need to consider the highly complex interactions of individuals, institutions, cultures, and networks involving all of the human family around the globe. Organizing ourselves differently, communicating and making decisions in new ways, are examples of social ingenuity. If one's ability to generate adequate solutions to these problems is inadequate, the ingenuity gap will lead to a wide range of social problems. The full exploration of these ideas in meeting social challenges is featured in The Ingenuity Gap1, one of Thomas Homer-Dixon's earliest books.
In another of Homer-Dixon's book, The Up Side of Down2, he argues that increasingly expensive oil, driven by scarcity, will lead to great social instability. Walking across an empty room requires very little ingenuity. If the room is full of snakes, hungry bears, and land mines, the ingenuity requirement will have gone up considerably.
Ingenuity is often inherent in creative individuals, and thus is considered hard to separate from individual capital. It is not clear if Dixon or Romer considered it impossible to do so, or if they were simply not familiar with the prior analysis of "applied ideas", " intellectual capital", "talent", or " innovation" where instructional and individual contributions have been carefully separated, by economic theorists.
Usage examples of "ingenuity".
Get it clearly into your mind: one ingenuity of the nicotine trap is that, like all drug addiction, it is designed to keep you hooked, and that the more it adversely affects your health and purse, the more securely you appear to be hooked.
There was puzzling evidence from all over the Altiplano that agricultural experiments of an advanced and scientific nature had been carried out, with great ingenuity and dedication, to try to compensate for the deterioration of the climate.
It would have taken time, effort, and ingenuity to put sodium azide in sweetener packets.
All the detritus of high tech, awaiting apotheosis as the next generation of Betan ingenuity, gleamed out amid more banal and universal human rubbish.
Discovering just how much creatures with nervous systems of this degree of complexity can remember, and whether they can meet the rigorous criteria laid down by association psychologists as to behaviour to be counted as learning, classical or operant conditioning, becomes a matter of the ingenuity of the experimenter in designing appropriate, biologically relevant tasks.
Beauties and Curiosities of the district as we passed them, the Ingenuity of the Bowder Stone, the Beauties of the River Derwent, a wood above the river where not so long back they drowned a Witch, but I will not detain you with these, knowing, dearest Pelham, your Unmitigated Impatience with anything that has not to do with a graceful Ankle or a Pack of Cards, and so proceeding over the Wildest Country, all Horrid Boulders and Little Trees growing in grotesque profusion, we approached at length the village of Rosthwaite.
Overlords, unthinkably great as it was and operative withal in a fashion utterly incomprehensible to us of Civilization, was combined with the ingenuity, resourcefulness, and drive, as well as with the scientific ability of the Eich, the results would in any case have been portentous indeed.
However, Providence came directly to their aid, in an infinitesimal proportion it is true, but Cyrus Harding, with all his intelligence, all his ingenuity, would never have been able to produce that which, by the greatest chance, Herbert one day found in the lining of his waistcoat, which he was occupied in setting to rights.
In any case our immediate problem is a result of the diabolical ingenuity Edgars has displayed in shackling George in that manner.
Should a boy fail to exhibit the required amount of tact and ingenuity in dipping it was the custom for him to be given a severe beating from the other boys or by the kidsman himself.
While dressing she maintained with much ingenuity that a wise girl will be much more chary of her favours towards a man she loves than towards a man she does not love, because she would be afraid to lose the first, whereas she does not care about the second.
Clotho displays a more simple ingenuity as regards her defensive machinery, she is incomparably ahead of the Mygale in the matter of domestic comfort.
On the other hand, no ingenuity can torture language into being a fit word to use in connection with either sounds or any other symbols that have not been intended to convey a meaning, or again in connection with either sounds or symbols in respect of which there has been no covenant between sayer and sayee.
John Bull himself are given little subtlety but provide a basis for the allusive ingenuity with which the events of war and international activity are shifted to equivalent matters of law and domestic commerce.
She got out of bed, opened her trunk, took out the instrument and fixed it with the gum: I was compelled to admire the ingenuity of the contrivance.