ingenuity

noun

1. (uncountable, usually)The ability to solve difficult problems in original, clever, and inventive ways; ingeniousness.

   “The pyramids demonstrate the ingenuity of the ancient Egyptians.”

   “Poverty is the mother of ingenuity.”

   “Ingenuity is one of the characteristics of a beaver.”

   “Half the ingenuity lavished on news—by news we mean the topics of the day as connected with their own circle—half this ingenuity would set up a whole Society of Antiquaries, and immortalise at least a dozen of them.”

   “The heavy freight traffic which shares the double line between Paddington and Wolverhampton with the passenger traffic has taxed the ingenuity of the timetable planners.”

2. (uncountable, usually)An ingenuous action or thought.

   “Virility is sustained, preserved, even recaptured, by man's ingenuities, by exotic foods and drinks, by rare herbal compounds, by fantastical manipulations, goetic periapts.”

3. (archaic, uncountable, usually)Ingenuousness; honesty, straightforwardness

   “And therefore I apply my selfe to ingenuitie, and ever to speake truth and what I think[…].”