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originality

originality

30 4.5
A quality of being new and different in ideas and not copied from others
  • noun
  • /əˌrɪdʒɪˈnæləti/
translation icon : originalidad
  • In a world filled with copies, true originality sets an artist apart from the rest.
  • attitudes toward originality
  • originality and creativity
  • lack of originality

The depth of this originality is still not fully appreciated.

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Examples

  • In the present study, for example, attitudes toward originality were directly assessed.

    Academic text (1993)
  • Share your originality only with tolerant friends and those who are sure to appreciate your uniqueness.

  • That originality will not come from machine learning.

  • And in this new age, originality is of great value.

  • Well, you get points for originality.

  • We employed the same measure of originality in the present study.

    Academic text (1993)
  • Far more than I, he has a streak of originality I lack.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • The depth of this originality is still not fully appreciated.

  • Now all of this recognition has come because of the great originality and importance of her scholarship.

  • Pearse brought a degree of originality to the way he used culture, in terms of instilling a sense of identity and idealism.

Synonyms

creativity
vsoriginality
213 3.4

The ability to use imagination to make new ideas or things

is focused more on being new and not copied
ingenuity
vsoriginality
53 6.1

Clever new thinking that finds solutions to problems and makes useful things

emphasizes newness and lack of copying over cleverness
novelty
vsoriginality
47 4.7

Something new or different that seems interesting

stresses independent creative thinking rather than mere newness
creative thinking
vsoriginality
5 3.7

Thinking in new ways to make things or solve problems

emphasizes newness and not copying rather than the process
inventiveness
vsoriginality
5 4.9

The ability to think of new ideas and ways to do things

focuses more on being new rather than on practical invention
freshness
vsoriginality
5 2.5

The quality of being new and original

adds the idea of independent invention rather than just feeling new
creativeness
vsoriginality
1 3.3

Ability to think of new ideas and make new things

puts more weight on being novel and independent
innovativeness
vsoriginality
1 6.7

Thinking of new ideas and using new ways to do things

highlights being new in idea itself rather than implementation
individual creativity
vsoriginality
3.7

A single person's own new ideas and ways of making things

covers newness as a general quality beyond one person
imaginativeness
vsoriginality
6.6

Ability to think of new and creative ideas

stresses being new and independent rather than vivid imagining
ingeniousness
vsoriginality
7.2

Being very clever at finding new ways to solve problems and make things

places greater focus on being new and independent
procreativity
vsoriginality
9.1

Ability to come up with new ideas or works

centres more on newness and not copying of that output

Antonyms

24 4.8

A state of behaving and thinking like most people or like rules say

19 3.0

Copying another person's actions or speech to learn from them

A lack of new ideas or creativity

A quality of being not new and copied from other works

How Original

breakthrough
242 3.9
innovation
310 3.9
originality
30 4.5
creativity
213 3.4
novelty
47 4.7

Surface Forms

originality singular
originalities plural

Morphology

originality = original (transparent) = origin + al + ity

The noun is a regular abstract formation from 'original', so a learner can recover the meaning from the base adjective.

Etymology

The word originality comes from the simple word origin, which comes from the Latin origo meaning 'beginning' or 'source'. That's why originality means having new, creative ideas, as if they come from the 'beginning' rather than from copying others.