innovation
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 innovation in a Sentence
JSTOR Daily, 25 Oct. 2025
Accenture estimated that the innovations from these organizations could potentially save 570,000 metric tons of CO2 annually, equal to the life-cycle emissions of 170 million cotton t-shirts.
—Jennifer Bringle, Sourcing Journal, 24 Oct. 2025
Following Tesla’s disappointing quarterly earnings on Wednesday, Fortune’s Shawn Tully argues that the company’s stock is vastly overvalued, propped up by CEO Elon Musk’s promises of future innovations.
—Diane Brady, Fortune, 24 Oct. 2025
The initiative works to deeply integrate innovation with industrial chains.
—Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 24 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for innovation
Cite this Entry
“Innovation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/innovation. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
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innovation
noun
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