Meaning & use

ingenious

adjective·Academic

Cleverly inventive, showing exceptional skill or originality in solving a problem.

See it in a sentence

The engineers devised an ingenious solution using recycled materials to filter the water.

Her ingenious plan saved the company thousands of dollars in shipping costs.

A note on using this word

Ingenious describes clever ideas or designs, and should not be confused with "ingenuous," which means innocent or naive.

Words with a similar meaning

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

unimaginativeclumsy

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