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''patent'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260727004347-00-⌔

patent - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Noun

patent (countable and uncountable, plural patents)

  • (law)
    • An official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title; letters patent.
      • ✤ […] Squib proved clearly by his patent that the house and office did now belong to him.1
      • ✤ Philip of Spain had offered a reward of 25,000 crowns, a patent of nobility, and immunity for all past crimes, to the assassinator of the Prince of Orange.2
    • (specifically)
      • (originally) 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.
        • ✤ The patent situation, too, played a part in this, as often a firm sought to produce something which would achieve a given result, and yet not infringe a patent held by another; or a railway engineer would think of a device of his own that would free him of obligation to some manufacturer.3
        • ✤ The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.4
    • (US, historical) A specific grant of ownership of a piece of real property; a land patent.
  • (by extension) A product in respect of which a patent (sense 1.2.2) has been obtained.
  • (uncountable) Ellipsis of patent leather (“a varnished, high-gloss leather typically used for accessories and shoes”).
    • ✤ Louis Carlyle’s voice was wonderfully suggestive in its phases of the varying aspects of the speaker himself, and at that moment it conveyed a portrait of Mr Carlyle in his very best early-morning business manner […]. In its crisp yet benign complacency Carrados could almost have sworn to resplendent patent boots, the current shade in suede gloves and a carefully selected picotee.5
  • (figuratively)
    • A licence or (formal) permission to do something.
      • ✤ If you be ſo fond ouer her iniquity, giue her patent to offend, for if it touches not you, it comes neere no body.6
    • A characteristic or quality that one possesses; in particular (hyperbolic) as if exclusively; a monopoly.
      • ✤ So will I growe, ſo liue, ſo die my Lord,/Ere I will yield my virgin Patent, vp/Vnto his Lordſhippe, whoſe vnwiſhed yoake/My ſoule conſents not to giue ſouerainty.7
  • (gambling) The combination of seven bets on three selections, offering a return even if only one bet comes in.

Verb

patent (third-person singular simple present patents, present participle patenting, simple past and past participle patented)

  • (transitive, law)
    • 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.
      • ✤ To his great credit, Manson refused to patent his invention, as he desired to remove any obstacle to its adoption by other companies.8
      • ✤ The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.9
    • (US, historical) To obtain (over a piece of real property) a specific grant of ownership.
  • (transitive, figuratively) To be closely associated or identified with (something); to monopolize.

Adjective

patent (comparative more patent, superlative most patent)

  • Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.
    • ✤ Synonym: overt
    • ✤ At the departure of Philip he had received instructions, both patent and secret, for his guidance as stadholder of Holland, Friesland, and Utrecht.10
    • (baking) Of flour: fine, and consisting mostly of the inner part of the endosperm of the grain from which it is milled.
    • (medicine) Open, unobstructed; specifically, especially of the ductus arteriosus or foramen ovale in the heart, having not closed as would have happened in normal development.
      • ✤ She has a patent ductus arteriosus that will require surgery to close.
    • (medicine, veterinary medicine) Of an infection: in the phase when the organism causing it can be detected by clinical tests.
  • Explicit and obvious.
    • ✤ Synonyms: express, monosemous, unambiguous; see also Thesaurus: explicit, Thesaurus: obvious
    • ✤ Those claims are patent nonsense.
    • ✤ Again we read at page 174: “Instead of the Universal Roman Catholic Church there existed after 1650 the National Catholic Churches of Spain, France, Austria, Poland, etc. more subject to the Royal supremacy than to the Papal, not, however, so completely as in England.” This is obviously an exaggeration. There never existed in the countries mentioned, least of all in Spain, any National Catholic Church. There would not have existed any such contradictorially-named organization even in England had it not been for the lechery of Henry VIII. Other similar misstatements might be noticed here and there. The author’s intention, however, to be just is patent and his success in this respect is noteworthy.11
  • (archaic)
    • Especially of a document conferring some privilege or right: open to public perusal or use.
      • ✤ *letters patent *
    • Appointed or conferred by letters patent.
      • ✤ [H]e did at last think of an office which do belong to him in case the King do restore every man to his places that ever had been patent, which is to be one of the clerks of the signet, which will be a fine employment for one of his sons.12
  • (botany) Of a branch, leaf, etc.: outspread; also, spreading at right angles to the axis.
  • (law) Protected by a legal patent.
    • ✤ Synonym: patented
    • ✤ a patent right patent medicines
    • ✤ Madder is eſteemed a very rich Commodity, and what will turn to good profit; ſo that in King Charles I’s Time it was made a Patent Commodity.13
    • ✤ [H]e took up an old newspaper;/The paper was right easy to peruse;/He read an article the king attacking,/And a long eulogy of “Patent Blacking.”14
    • ✤ “Yes, I have a pair of eyes,” replied Sam, “and that’s just it. If they wos a pair o’patent double million magnifyin’ gas microscopes of hextra power, p’raps I might be able to see through a flight o’stairs and a deal door; but bein’ only eyes you see, my wision’s limited.”15
    • ✤ There, were also a small mouse-trap; a patent corkscrew, too good to be used in common; fragments of a silver tea-spoon, that had, by natural decay, arrived at a dissolution of its parts; […]16
  • (by extension, figuratively) To which someone has, or seems to have, a claim or an exclusive claim; also, inventive or particularly suited for.
    • ✤ [“]Ben, my fine fellow, put your hand into the cupboard, and bring out the patent digester.” Mr. Benjamin Allen smiled his readiness, and produced from the closet at his elbow a black bottle half full of brandy.17

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈpeɪtənt/, /ˈpætənt/
    • Audio (Received Pronunciation): 🔊
  • (General American, Canada) enPR: pătʹənt, pātʹənt, IPA: /ˈpætənt/, [ˈpʰæ̝ʔn̩t̚],/ˈpeɪtənt/, [ˈpʰe̞ɪʔn̩t̚]
    • Audio (New Jersey): 🔊
  • (Australian) IPA: /ˈpæɪtənt/, /ˈpætənt/
  • Rhymes: -eɪtənt, -ætənt
  • Hyphenation: pa‧tent

Etymology 1

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],18 which is either:19

  • 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 Anglo-Norman lettres patentes, Middle French lettres patentes, lettre patente, and Old French patentes lettres (“document granting an office, privilege, right, etc., or making a decree”) (compare Late Latin patēns, littera patēns, litterae patentēs).20

For the derivation of Anglo-Norman and Middle French patente (adjective) in lettre patente, see etymology 2 below.

The verb is derived from the noun.21

Etymology 2

From Middle English patent, patente (“wide open; clear, unobstructed; unlimited; of a document: available for public inspection”) [and other forms],22 from Anglo-Norman and Middle French patent (modern French patent), and directly from their etymon Latin patēns (“open; accessible, passable; evident, manifest; exposed, vulnerable”), the present active participle of pateō (“to be open; to be accessible, attainable; to be exposed, vulnerable; of frontiers or land: to extent, increase”), from Proto-Indo-European ﹡peth₂- (“to spread out; to fly”).23

Printed 2026-07-27.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1660 February 20 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “February 10th, 1659–1660”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume I, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893, →OCLC, page 52: ↩

  2. 1858, John M. Neale, A History of the So-called Jansenist Church of Holland, page 116: ↩

  3. 1951, T. S. Lascelles, “British Railway Signalling Since 1925”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 226: ↩

  4. 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist ‎, volume 407, number 8839, London: Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 March 2019, page 55: ↩

  5. 1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC: ↩

  6. c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 66: ↩

  7. c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]: ↩

  8. 1946 November and December, “The Why and The Wherefore: Tablet Exchange Apparatus, L.M.S.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 392: ↩

  9. 2013 June 21, Karen McVeigh, “US Rules Human Genes Can’t be Patented”, in The Guardian Weekly ‎, volume 189, number 2, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 10: ↩

  10. 1856, John Lothrop Motley, “Sowing the Wind”, in The Rise of the Dutch Republic. A History. […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, part II (Administration of the Duchess Margaret. 1559–1567.), page 240: ↩

  11. 1916 March, “The Reconciliation of Government with Liberty. By John W[illiam] Burgess, Ph.D., Ju.D., LL.D. Scribner & Sons, New York. 1915. Pp. 410. [book review]”, in The Ecclesiastical Review: A Monthly Publication for the Clergy, volume IV (6th Series; volume LIV overall), number 3, Philadelphia, Pa.: American Ecclesiastical Review; The Dolphin Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 373–374: ↩

  12. 1660 May 14 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “May 4th, 1660”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume I, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893, →OCLC, page 129: ↩

  13. 1708, J[ohn] Mortimer, “Of Madder”, in The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC, book V, page 125: ↩

  14. 1824 March 26, [Lord Byron], Don Juan. Cantos XV. and XVI., London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John and H[enry] L[eigh] Hunt, […], →OCLC, canto XVI, stanza XXVI, page 74: ↩

  15. 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “Is Wholly Devoted to a Full and Faithful Report of the Memorable Trial of Bardell against Pickwick”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC, page 368: ↩

  16. 1853, Pisistratus Caxton [pseudonym; Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter III, in “My Novel”; Or Varieties in English Life […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book second, page 103: ↩

  17. 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “How Mr. Winkle, when He Stepped Out of the Frying-pan, Walked Gently and Comfortably into the Fire”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC, page 405: ↩

  18. “patent(e, n. (1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  19. “patent, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2021; “patent, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩

  20. “patent, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “patent, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩

  21. “patent, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, April 2020; “patent, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩

  22. “patent(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  23. “patent, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “patent, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩

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