patent.
An official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title; letters patent.
Meaning & usage
An official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title; letters patent.
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.
A specific grant of ownership of a piece of real property; a land patent.
A product in respect of which a patent (sense 1.2.2) has been obtained.
Ellipsis of patent leather (“a varnished, high-gloss leather typically used for accessories and shoes”).
A licence or (formal) permission to do something.
A characteristic or quality that one possesses; in particular (hyperbolic) as if exclusively; a monopoly.
The combination of seven bets on three selections, offering a return even if only one bet comes in.
Where this word comes from
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 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). 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.
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 obtain (over a piece of real property) a specific grant of ownership.
To be closely associated or identified with (something); to monopolize.
Where this word comes from
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 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). 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.
Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.
Conspicuous; open; unconcealed. Of flour: fine, and consisting mostly of the inner part of the endosperm of the grain from which it is milled.
Conspicuous; open; unconcealed. 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.
Conspicuous; open; unconcealed. Of an infection: in the phase when the organism causing it can be detected by clinical tests.
Explicit and obvious.
Those claims are patent nonsense.
Especially of a document conferring some privilege or right: open to public perusal or use.
letters patent
Appointed or conferred by letters patent.
Of a branch, leaf, etc.: outspread; also, spreading at right angles to the axis.
Protected by a legal patent.
a patent right patent medicines
To which someone has, or seems to have, a claim or an exclusive claim; also, inventive or particularly suited for.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English patent, patente (“wide open; clear, unobstructed; unlimited; of a document: available for public inspection”) [and other forms], 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”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.