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
Michael B. G. Froman, Foreign Affairs, 11 Aug. 2025
The modern electric washing machine is one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century.
—Melissa Locker, Southern Living, 8 Aug. 2025
In the first scene, the young man, whose mordantly resonant name is George Washington Black, or Wash (Ernest Kingsley Junior), is showing a father figure named Medwin, played by Brown, one of his latest inventions, a small prototype for a blimp.
—Vinson Cunningham, New Yorker, 2 Aug. 2025
Despite these uncertainties, the authors believe gen AI’s dual role—as a transformative platform and as a method for accelerating invention—bodes well for long-term economic growth if barriers to widespread adoption can be overcome.
—Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 1 Aug. 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 23 Aug. 2025.
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invention
noun
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