patent
Meanings
Plural: patents
Noun
- a document granting an inventor sole rights to an invention
- an official document granting a right or privilege
- An official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title; letters patent.
- A grant of a monopoly over the manufacture, sale, and use of goods.
- A declaration issued by a government agency that the inventor of a new invention has the sole privilege of making, selling, or using the claimed invention for a specified period.
- A specific grant of ownership of a piece of real property; a land patent.
- A product in respect of which a patent (sense 1.2.2) has been obtained.
- Ellipsis of patent leather (“a varnished, high-gloss leather typically used for accessories and shoes”).
- A licence or (formal) permission to do something.
- A characteristic or quality that one possesses; in particular (hyperbolic) as if exclusively; a monopoly.
- The combination of seven bets on three selections, offering a return even if only one bet comes in.
Verb
- obtain a patent for
- "Should I patent this invention?"
- grant rights to; grant a patent for
- make open to sight or notice
- "His behavior has patented an embarrassing fact about him"
- To (successfully) register (a new invention) with a government agency to obtain the sole privilege of its manufacture, sale, and use for a specified period.
- To obtain (over a piece of real property) a specific grant of ownership.
- To be closely associated or identified with (something); to monopolize.
Adjective Satellite
- (of a bodily tube or passageway) open; affording free passage
- "patent ductus arteriosus"
- clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment
- "patent advantages"
Adj
- Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.
- Of flour: fine, and consisting mostly of the inner part of the endosperm of the grain from which it is milled.
- Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.
- Open, unobstructed; specifically, especially of the ductus arteriosus or foramen ovale in the heart, having not closed as would have happened in normal development.
- Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.
- Of an infection: in the phase when the organism causing it can be detected by clinical tests.
- Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.
- Explicit and obvious.
- Especially of a document conferring some privilege or right: open to public perusal or use.
- Appointed or conferred by letters patent.
- Of a branch, leaf, etc.: outspread; also, spreading at right angles to the axis.
- Protected by a legal patent.
- To which someone has, or seems to have, a claim or an exclusive claim; also, inventive or particularly suited for.
Origin / Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English patent (“document granting an office, property, right, title, etc.; document granting permission, licence; papal indulgence, pardon”) [and other forms], which is either:
* a clipping of lettre patent, lettres patente, lettres patentes [and other forms]; or
* directly from Anglo-Norman and Middle French patente (modern French patent), a clipping of Anglo-Norman lettres patentes, Middle French lettres patentes, lettre patente, and Old French patentes lettres (“document granting an office, privilege, right, etc., or making a decree”) (compare Late Latin patēns, littera patēns, litterae patentēs).
For the derivation of Anglo-Norman and Middle French patente (adjective) in lettre patente, see etymology 2 below.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Synonyms
apparent, arrant, bait, blatant, clear, clear as a bell, clear as day, clear cut, crystal clear, cut and dried, decided, direct, elucidate, evident, explicit, express, eyely, glaring, intuitive, letters patent, manifest, monosemic, monosemous, notable, noticeable, obvious, open-and-shut, ostensible, overt, palpable, patent, patent of invention, patented, plain, plain as a haystack, plain as a pikestaff, plain as day, plain as Dunstable highway, plain as porridge, plain as print, plain as Salisbury, plain as the nose on one's face, prima facie, res ipsa loquitur, specific, straightforward, unambiguous, undissembled, undoubted, unequivocal, univocal, unmistakable
Scrabble Score: 8
patent is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordpatent is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
patent is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary