invention

1 something (as a device) created for the first time through the use of the imagination his clever invention made people's lives easier Synonyms brainchild, coinage, concoction, contrivance, creation, innovation, wrinkle Related Words contraption, device, gadget, gizmo (also gismo), novelty; design, product, work; dream, fantasy (also phantasy), picture, vision; conception, imagining, origination Near Antonyms carbon copy, clone, copy, dupe, duplicate, duplication, facsimile, imitation, reduplication, replica, replication, reproduction

2 something that is the product of the imagination unsurprisingly, the story about being kidnapped by aliens was pure invention Synonyms fable, fabrication, fantasy (also phantasy), figment, fictionRelated Words anecdote, narrative, novel, story, tale, yarn; fairy tale, falsehood, falsity, fib, lie, mendacity, misrepresentation, prevarication, untruth, whopper; make-believeNear Antonyms actuality, realnessAntonyms fact, materiality, reality

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 writer with great invention, she is able to create on the page worlds that don't exist but certainly seem like they could Synonyms contrivance, creativity, fancy, fantasy (also phantasy), ideation, imaginativeness, imagination, inventiveness, originalityRelated 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, visualizationNear Antonyms literality, literalness

4 the skill and imagination to create new things a person of seemingly endless invention, Thomas Edison held a world-record 1,093 patents Synonyms cleverness, creativeness, imagination, imaginativeness, ingeniousness, ingenuity, innovativeness, creativity, inventiveness, originalityRelated Words fecundity, fertility, fruitfulness, productiveness, productivity, prolificacy, prolificity, prolificness; capableness, resourcefulness; genius, giftedness, talent; fire, inspiration, museNear Antonyms dryness, dullness (also dulness)