ingenious
in·ge·nious/ɪnˈd͡ʒiːnjəs/adjective
ingenious is spelled I-N-G-E-N-I-O-U-S, 3 syllables: in·ge·nious. The wrong spelling people search most is ingenius: about 360 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Ingenious is an adjective meaning “Of a person, displaying genius, ingenuity or brilliance; inventive”.
How many letters and syllables are in ingenious?
| Letters | 9: I-N-G-E-N-I-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: in·ge·nious |
| In writing | 2.2 times per million words; the 18,297th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, ingenius, about 360 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell ingenious?
Ingenious is spelled I-N-G-E-N-I-O-U-S. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for ingenious in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is ingenious?
Ingenious appears 2.2 times per million words in written English, the 18,297th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce ingenious?
- /ɪnˈd͡ʒiːnjəs/
- /ɪnˈd͡ʒiːni.əs/
Ingenious has 3 syllables, split in·ge·nious in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-ingenious.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of ingenious
- more ingenious comparative
- most ingenious superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ingenious mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Of a person, displaying genius, ingenuity or brilliance; inventive.
This fellow is ingenious; he fixed a problem I didn’t even know I had.
- 2
Of a thing, characterized by genius; cleverly contrived or done.
That is an ingenious model of the atom.
- 3
Showing originality or sagacity; characterized by ingenuity; witty.
He sent me an ingenious reply to an email.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ingenious in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | ingénieux |
| German | ingeniös, genial, einfallsreich, originell, findig , clever |
| Portuguese | engenhoso |
| Spanish | ingenioso |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ingenious come from?
Borrowed from Middle French ingénieux, from Old French engenious, from Latin ingeniōsus (“endowed with good natural capacity, gifted with genius”), from ingenium (“innate or natural quality, natural capacity, genius”), from in- (“in”) + gignere (“to produce”), Old Latin genere. See also engine.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).