Library / English Dictionary

INVENTOR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who is the first to think of or make something

Synonyms:

artificer; discoverer; inventor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("inventor" is a kind of...):

creator (a person who grows or makes or invents things)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "inventor"):

patentee (the inventor to whom a patent is issued)

Instance hyponyms:

Langley; Samuel Pierpoint Langley (United States astronomer and aviation pioneer who invented the bolometer and contributed to the design of early aircraft (1834-1906))

Mauser; P. P. von Mauser; Peter Paul Mauser; von Mauser (German arms manufacturer and inventor of a repeating rifle and pistol (1838-1914))

Maxim; Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim (English inventor (born in the United States) who invented the Maxim gun that was used in World War I (1840-1916))

Cyrus Hall McCormick; Cyrus McCormick; McCormick (United States inventor and manufacturer of a mechanical harvester (1809-1884))

Mergenthaler; Ottmar Mergenthaler (United States inventor (born in Germany) of the Linotype machine (1854-1899))

Morse; Samuel F. B. Morse; Samuel Finley Breese Morse; Samuel Morse (United States portrait painter who patented the telegraph and developed the Morse code (1791-1872))

Eadweard Muybridge; Edward James Muggeridge; Muybridge (United States motion-picture pioneer remembered for his pictures of running horses taken with a series of still cameras (born in England) (1830-1904))

Elisha Graves Otis; Otis (United States inventor who manufactured the first elevator with a safety device (1811-1861))

Isaac M. Singer; Isaac Merrit Singer; Singer (United States inventor of an improved chain-stitch sewing machine (1811-1875))

Elmer Ambrose Sperry; Sperry (United States engineer and inventor of the gyrocompass (1860-1930))

Francis Edgar Stanley; Stanley (United States inventor who built a steam-powered automobile (1849-1918))

Charles Proteus Steinmetz; Steinmetz (United States electrical engineer and inventor (born in Germany) (1865-1923))

Fox Talbot; Talbot; William Henry Fox Talbot (English inventor and pioneer in photography who published the first book illustrated with photographs (1800-1877))

Nikola Tesla; Tesla (United States electrical engineer and inventor (born in Croatia but of Serbian descent) who discovered the principles of alternating currents and developed the first alternating-current induction motor and the Tesla coil and several forms of oscillators (1856-1943))

James Watt; Watt (Scottish engineer and inventor whose improvements in the steam engine led to its wide use in industry (1736-1819))

George Westinghouse; Westinghouse (United States inventor and manufacturer (1846-1914))

Sir Charles Wheatstone; Wheatstone (English physicist and inventor who devised the Wheatstone bridge (1802-1875))

Eli Whitney; Whitney (United States inventor of the mechanical cotton gin (1765-1825))

Orville Wright; Wright (United States aviation pioneer who (with his brother Wilbur Wright) invented the airplane (1871-1948))

Wilbur Wright; Wright (United States aviation pioneer who (with his brother Orville Wright) invented the airplane (1867-1912))

Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin; Zeppelin (German inventor who designed and built the first rigid motorized dirigible (1838-1917))

Alexander Bell; Alexander Graham Bell; Bell (United States inventor (born in Scotland) of the telephone (1847-1922))

Bessemer; Sir Henry Bessemer (British inventor and metallurgist who developed the Bessemer process (1813-1898))

Browning; John M. Browning; John Moses Browning (United States inventor of firearms (especially automatic pistols and repeating rifles and a machine gun called the Peacemaker) (1855-1926))

Burroughs; William Seward Burroughs (United States inventor who patented the first practical adding machine (1855-1898))

Bushnell; David Bushnell; Father of the Submarine (American inventor who in 1775 designed a man-propelled submarine that was ineffectual but subsequently earned him recognition as a submarine pioneer (1742-1824))

Cartwright; Edmund Cartwright (English clergyman who invented the power loom (1743-1823))

Daguerre; Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre (French inventor of the first practical photographic process, the daguerreotype (1789-1851))

De Forest; Father of Radio; Lee De Forest (United States electrical engineer who in 1907 patented the first triode vacuum tube, which made it possible to detect and amplify radio waves (1873-1961))

Eastman; George Eastman (United States inventor of a dry-plate process of developing photographic film and of flexible film (his firm introduced roll film) and of the box camera and of a process for color photography (1854-1932))

Edison; Thomas Alva Edison; Thomas Edison (United States inventor; inventions included the phonograph and incandescent electric light and the microphone and the Kinetoscope (1847-1931))

Fulton; Robert Fulton (American inventor who designed the first commercially successful steamboat and the first steam warship (1765-1815))

Gatling; Richard Jordan Gatling (United States inventor of the first rapid firing gun (1818-1903))

Gillette; King Camp Gilette (United States inventor and manufacturer who developed the safety razor (1855-1932))

Goldmark; Peter Carl Goldmark; Peter Goldmark (United States inventor (born in Hungary) who made the first TV broadcast in 1940 and invented the long-playing record in 1948 and pioneered videocassette recording (1906-1977))

Charles Goodyear; Goodyear (United States inventor of vulcanized rubber (1800-1860))

Hargreaves; James Hargreaves (English inventor of the spinning jenny (1720-1778))

Hero; Hero of Alexandria; Heron (Greek mathematician and inventor who devised a way to determine the area of a triangle and who described various mechanical devices (first century))

Herman Hollerith; Hollerith (United States inventor who invented a system for recording alphanumeric information on punched cards (1860-1929))

Elias Howe; Howe (United States inventor who built early sewing machines and won suits for patent infringement against other manufacturers (including Isaac M. Singer) (1819-1867))

Jacquard; Joseph M. Jacquard; Joseph Marie Jacquard (French inventor of the Jacquard loom that could automatically weave complicated patterns (1752-1834))

Din Land; Edwin Herbert Land; Land (United States inventor who incorporated Polaroid film into lenses and invented the one step photographic process (1909-1991))

Derivation:

invent (come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or principle) after a mental effort)

Credits