patent
noun · verb · adjective
Simple meaning
An official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
patuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpætənt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
law
An official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title; letters patent.
law
A document granting an inventor sole rights to an invention
lawspecifically
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.
lawspecifically
(originally) A grant of a monopoly over the manufacture, sale, and use of goods.
by extension
A product in respect of which a patent (sense 1.2.2) has been obtained.
figuratively
A characteristic or quality that one possesses; in particular (hyperbolic) as if exclusively; a monopoly.
verb
transitivefiguratively
To be closely associated or identified with (something); to monopolize.
Obtain a patent for
Grant rights to; grant a patent for
adjective
Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.
by extensionfiguratively
To which someone has, or seems to have, a claim or an exclusive claim; also, inventive or particularly suited for.
Explicit and obvious.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title; letters patent.
Used this way, patent is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Law/legal
- Government/politics
- Academic writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Nearby words
- letters patent , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Official / document
Characteristic
Other combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Unmistakably (`plain' is often used informally for `plainly').
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A ductus arteriosus that failed to close at birth.
Violation of the rights secured by a patent.
That branch of jurisprudence that studies the laws governing patents.
Leather with a hard glossy surface.
A cigar-shaped log with rotary fins that measure the ship's speed.
Medicine that is protected by a patent and available without a doctor's prescription.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: official document granting an appointment or privilege
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.