Meaning & use
discovery
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Meanings
noununcountable
The act of finding or learning something that was not known before.
Grammar: Often followed by of: the discovery of penicillin.
Patterns
- the discovery of something
- make a discovery
The discovery of the cave changed what we knew about early humans.
Her discovery that the data was wrong saved the project.
Columbus is credited with the discovery of the Americas by some textbooks.
nouncountable
Something found or realized for the first time.
Grammar: Countable: a great discovery, several discoveries.
Patterns
- a discovery that ...
- an important discovery
The scientist announced a major discovery.
This little cafe was a lucky discovery.
The book is full of surprising discoveries.
noununcountablelegal
In law, the stage when each side must reveal documents and evidence to the other before a trial.
Grammar: Used as a mass noun in legal contexts: discovery rules.
Patterns
- discovery of documents
The lawyers requested discovery of all emails.
Discovery took six months in the case.
The judge set a deadline for discovery.
Word forms
| plural | discoveries |
|---|
Common combinations
- make a discovery
- Two students made a discovery in the old library.
- a scientific discovery
- The vaccine was a scientific discovery of the century.
- a voyage of discovery
- For her, college was a voyage of discovery.
- accidental discovery
- The discovery was accidental.
- discovery process
- The discovery process revealed several key emails.
- announce a discovery
- NASA will announce a discovery tomorrow.
Synonyms and how they differ
- finding
- Finding is a plainer word and often means a research result rather than a major breakthrough.
- breakthrough
- Breakthrough means a sudden important advance, which is narrower than discovery.
- revelation
- Revelation stresses something surprising being made known, often a secret or truth.
- invention
- Invention is making something new, whereas discovery is finding something that already existed.
Opposites
Word family
- discover verb
- to find or learn something new
- discoverer noun
- a person who discovers something
- undiscovered adjective
- not yet found
- rediscover verb
- to find again
Commonly confused: discovery or invention?
discovery vs invention
An invention is something newly created, while a discovery was already there waiting to be found.
Practice
Penicillin was an accidental ____ that changed medicine.
Choose one answer.
Discovery fits something already existing that was found by chance. Penicillin was found, not built, so invention is weaker.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “discovery”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.