HOW TO PRONOUNCE
patent
/ˈpætənt/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:49
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What does patent mean?
noun
- 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.
More meanings (19)
noun
- 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”).
- (figuratively) A licence or (formal) permission to do something.
- (figuratively) 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.
- (historical) A specific grant of ownership of a piece of real property; a land patent.
verb
- 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.
- (figuratively) To be closely associated or identified with (something); to monopolize.
- (historical) To obtain (over a piece of real property) a specific grant of ownership.
adjective
- Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.
- Of flour: fine, and consisting mostly of the inner part of the endosperm of the grain from which it is milled.
- Open, unobstructed; specifically, especially of the ductus arteriosus or foramen ovale in the heart, having not closed as would have happened in normal development.
- Of an infection: in the phase when the organism causing it can be detected by clinical tests.
- Explicit and obvious.
- Of a branch, leaf, etc.: outspread; also, spreading at right angles to the axis.
- Protected by a legal patent.
- (figuratively) To which someone has, or seems to have, a claim or an exclusive claim; also, inventive or particularly suited for.
- (archaic) Especially of a document conferring some privilege or right: open to public perusal or use.
- (archaic) Appointed or conferred by letters patent.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ˈpætənt/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
She was one of those people who are infatuated with patent medicines and all new-fangled methods of producing health or mending it.
They had seen him making good iron by his new patent process, and selling it cheaper than they could afford to do.
More book examples (3)
Falling into error regarding what was the doctor's and what was her own, and her errors being too patent, she was dismissed.
Oddly enough, a few years later, some inventor actually took out a patent for making incandescent lamps with carbonized hair for filaments!
To dream of securing a patent, denotes that you will be careful and painstaking with any task you set about to accomplish.