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patent

Pronunciation: /ˈpeɪtənt/

The English word “patent” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. An official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title; letters patent.
  2. A grant of a monopoly over the manufacture, sale, and use of goods.
  3. 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.
  4. A specific grant of ownership of a piece of real property; a land patent.
  5. A product in respect of which a patent (sense 1.2.2) has been obtained.
  6. A licence or (formal) permission to do something.
  7. A characteristic or quality that one possesses; in particular (hyperbolic) as if exclusively; a monopoly.
  8. The combination of seven bets on three selections, offering a return even if only one bet comes in.

verb

  1. 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.
  2. To obtain (over a piece of real property) a specific grant of ownership.
  3. To be closely associated or identified with (something); to monopolize.

adjective

  1. Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.
  2. Of flour: fine, and consisting mostly of the inner part of the endosperm of the grain from which it is milled.
  3. Open, unobstructed; specifically, especially of the ductus arteriosus or foramen ovale in the heart, having not closed as would have happened in normal development.
  4. Of an infection: in the phase when the organism causing it can be detected by clinical tests.
  5. Explicit and obvious.
  6. Especially of a document conferring some privilege or right: open to public perusal or use.
  7. Appointed or conferred by letters patent.
  8. Of a branch, leaf, etc.: outspread; also, spreading at right angles to the axis.
  9. Protected by a legal patent.

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…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.