invention
noun
Did you know?
What is the difference between innovation and invention?
The words innovation and invention overlap semantically but are really quite distinct.
Invention can refer to a type of musical composition, a falsehood, a discovery, or any product of the imagination. The sense of invention most likely to be confused with innovation is “a device, contrivance, or process originated after study and experiment,” usually something which has not previously been in existence.
Innovation, for its part, can refer to something new or to a change made to an existing product, idea, or field. One might say that the first telephone was an invention, the first cellular telephone either an invention or an innovation, and the first smartphone an innovation.
Examples of invention in a Sentence
EW.com, 10 Apr. 2025
Betty’s world is introduced with real decor, like a big grey bed and an amusingly goofy invention of Grampy’s, but the handmade quality falls by the wayside as most of the rest of David Rockwell’s sets are conjured via that old menace, the big flat LED screen.
—Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 8 Apr. 2025
Colossal is leaning into the pop culture significance of its invention, including setting up the pups for a photo shoot on the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones, courtesy of Peter Jackson.
—Adam Carlson, People.com, 7 Apr. 2025
That team was an elegant invention being displayed at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, with gears and pulleys that hinted at a new era.
—Grant Brisbee, New York Times, 6 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for invention
Cite this Entry
“Invention.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/invention. Accessed 22 Apr. 2025.
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invention
noun
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