originality

originality

noun

Definition of ORIGINALITY

1

the quality or appeal of being new <the originality of the war memorial sparked a heated controversy, as most people had been expecting something more traditional>

Synonyms freshness, newness, originality

Related Words hipness, trendiness; bizarreness, strangeness, unfamiliarity, unusualness; progressiveness; currentness, recentness, up-to-dateness; departure, divergence, innovation, offshoot, shoot

Near Antonyms banality, commonness, familiarity; outdatedness, staleness

2

the skill and imagination to create new things <a poet of great originality, she brought a whole new range of subject matter and imagery to poetry>

Synonyms cleverness, creativeness, imagination, imaginativeness, ingeniousness, ingenuity, innovativeness, invention, inventiveness, originality

Related Words fecundity, fertility, fruitfulness, productiveness, productivity, prolificacy, prolificity, prolificness; capableness, resourcefulness; genius, giftedness, talent; fire, inspiration, muse

Near Antonyms dryness, dullness (also dulness)

3

the ability to form mental images of things that either are not physically present or have never been conceived or created by others <a graphic novel that shows a lot of originality on the part of its creator>

Synonyms contrivance, creativity, fancy, fantasy (also phantasy), ideation, imaginativeness, invention, inventiveness, originality

Related Words brainstorm, brainstorming, inspiration; fecundity, fertility; ingenuity, resourcefulness; versatility; chimera, daydream, delusion, dream, figment, hallucination, illusion, mind's eye, mirage, phantasm (also fantasm), pipe dream; envisaging, visualization

Near Antonyms literality, literalness