Meaning & use
patent
Last updated
A government-granted right giving an inventor exclusive control over the making, use, or sale of an invention for a set period.
See it in a sentence
The company filed a patent for its new battery design.
Her patent expired, allowing competitors to produce similar devices.
A note on using this word
As an adjective, 'patent' (pronounced differently in some dialects) means obvious or plain, as in 'a patent lie'; context and pronunciation distinguish the two uses.
Words with a similar meaning
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Another way to use it
2. adjective
Clearly obvious or evident.
It was patent nonsense to claim the results were accidental.
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