innovative

innovative — adjective

1. describing something that makes use of fresh thinking or new techniques to produ

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

describing something that makes use of fresh thinking or new techniques to produce results that are noticeably different from what existed before — for example, a phone with a camera design that changes how people take pictures, or a class activity that teaches grammar through a board game.

Example

Jin's company received an award for its innovative water-purification device.

attributive: innovative + noun (water-purification device)

The chef Eleni created an innovative dessert using ingredients from local farms.

Common collocations
  • innovative design
  • innovative solution
  • innovative approach
  • innovative technology
  • innovative product
  • innovative idea
  • innovative method
Synonyms
  • groundbreaking

    stronger and more dramatic than 'innovative'; implies a major advance that changes an entire field

  • creative

    focuses on imagination and artistic originality rather than practical improvement

  • original

    stresses being the very first of its kind, but does not guarantee usefulness or improvement

  • progressive

    emphasizes forward-thinking social or political change rather than technical or design novelty

Antonyms
  • traditional

    follows long-established methods instead of trying new ones

  • conventional

    sticks to what is ordinary or expected

Grammar Patterns

innovative + noun

be + innovative

find/consider + something + innovative

Usage Note

Used both before a noun (attributive) and after linking verbs like 'be', 'seem', or 'consider' (predicative). Intensifying adverbs such as 'highly', 'truly', and 'genuinely' commonly appear before this word — 'highly innovative' is far more frequent than 'very innovative' in formal writing.

Common Mistakes

Samsung released a new phone.' (when you mean innovative).
Samsung released an innovative phone with a folding screen.
'new' simply means recently made; 'innovative' says the product introduces something that changes how things are done.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

'Innovative' is the broadest of these five words — it describes anything that introduces fresh thinking or new techniques to create improvement. 'Creative' leans toward imagination and artistic expression: a painter's style can be creative but not innovative if it does not solve a practical problem. 'Groundbreaking' is the strongest — it suggests something that opens up a whole new area of knowledge or practice, such as a medical treatment that saves lives where nothing worked before. 'Original' simply means the first of its kind; something original may be eccentric or impractical. 'Novel' is the most neutral — it means unusual and new, without judging whether the change is meaningful. In a business review, a 'novel marketing strategy' is simply different; an 'innovative marketing strategy' is different and effective.

innovative ↗creative ↗groundbreaking ↗original ↗novel ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • innovative way of doing something

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

Comes from the Latin verb 'innovare' (to renew or restore), which was formed by combining 'in-' (into) with 'novus' (new). The noun 'innovation' entered English in the mid-1500s through French, and the adjective 'innovative' followed in the 1700s to describe people or things that bring in new methods.