Ingenious
//ɪnˈd͡ʒiːnjəs// adj
adj ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Adjective
- 1 Of a person, displaying genius or brilliance; inventive.
"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.
"That is an ingenious model of the atom."
- 3 Showing originality or sagacity; witty.
"He sent me an ingenious reply to an email."
Adjective
- 1 showing inventiveness and skill wordnet
Example
More examples"Despite adversity, the ingenious man achieved worldwide fame."
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.
More for "ingenious"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.