Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective ingenious differ from other similar words?

Some common synonyms of ingenious are adroit, clever, and cunning. While all these words mean "having or showing practical wit or skill in contriving," ingenious suggests the power of inventing or discovering a new way of accomplishing something.

an ingenious software engineer

In what contexts can adroit take the place of ingenious?

The meanings of adroit and ingenious largely overlap; however, adroit often implies a skillful use of expedients to achieve one's purpose in spite of difficulties.

an adroit negotiator

When is it sensible to use clever instead of ingenious?

The words clever and ingenious can be used in similar contexts, but clever stresses physical or mental quickness, deftness, or great aptitude.

a person clever with horses

When might cunning be a better fit than ingenious?

Although the words cunning and ingenious have much in common, cunning implies great skill in constructing or creating.

a filmmaker cunning in his use of special effects

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of ingenious Install Coyote Rollers These ingenious devices are long, spinning bars mounted to the fence top. Lucy Notarantonio, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 June 2025 The approach was ingenious: extract fragments of DNA circulating in the bloodstream—the same shards first glimpsed by Mandel and Métais nearly seven decades earlier—and sequence them to identify abnormalities in the regulation of gene expression that are indicative of cancer. Siddhartha Mukherjee, New Yorker, 16 June 2025 That idea that being ingenious isn’t a necessary requirement gives tremendous hope to a lot of those AI developers who are desirous of being the one solo coder to discover or invent AGI. Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 11 June 2025 Still, Strindberg’s three-part structure, with its bear-trap teeth, is too ingenious to mess with. Jesse Green, New York Times, 19 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for ingenious
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ingenious
Adjective
  • Readers raved about the inventive New Mexican cuisine and the destination’s natural beauty—sitting at 7,000 feet, Santa Fe is at the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range and enjoys over 300 days of sunshine per year.
    Elizabeth Cantrell, Travel + Leisure, 8 July 2025
  • Some inventive past examples include a popular touring revue with Ira Glass, a disco dance workout through the galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a meditation on loneliness in the public atrium of a Financial District shopping mall.
    Brian Schaefer July 7, Literary Hub, 7 July 2025
Adjective
  • Light, clever, and just leftfield enough to feel like a proper find.
    Lela London, Forbes.com, 2 July 2025
  • Dubno’s novel sounds equally thoughtful and nasty, clever and juicy and full of great drama.
    Literary Hub July 1, Literary Hub, 1 July 2025
Adjective
  • So have innovative documentaries like Peter Jackson’s Get Back and Ron Howard’s Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years.
    Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 1 July 2025
  • Soko’s innovative Hydrogel technology, used for denim finishing, transforms water into a highly viscous state, enveloping fabrics and protecting them from aggressive agents while reducing water consumption by up to 10 times compared to traditional methods.
    Andrea Onate, Footwear News, 1 July 2025
Adjective
  • An imaginative builder can put the stones together in all sorts of combinations.
    Jennie Rothenberg Gritz, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 July 2025
  • Verne’s imaginative fiction has inspired more and less faithful screen adaptations since the days of silent movies.
    Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 29 June 2025
Adjective
  • Sharing the screen with Nicole Kidman in the second season of Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers proved to be a career highlight, Straus says, and one that helped renew her creative passion.
    Stephen Daw, Billboard, 30 June 2025
  • Apple Music has unveiled a new studio near its Culver City headquarters, an expansive 15,000-square-foot space the streaming service hopes will serve as an all-in-one creative hub where musicians can come for radio interviews, write and record new music, conduct photo shoots and film video content.
    Ethan Millman, HollywoodReporter, 30 June 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Ingenious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ingenious. Accessed 14 Jul. 2025.

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