DISCOVERY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does discovery mean? 

• DISCOVERY (noun)
  The noun DISCOVERY has 4 senses:

1. the act of discovering something

2. something that is discovered

3. a productive insight

4. (law) compulsory pretrial disclosure of documents relevant to a case; enables one side in a litigation to elicit information from the other side concerning the facts in the case

  Familiarity information: DISCOVERY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISCOVERY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of discovering something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

discovery; find; uncovering

Hypernyms ("discovery" is a kind of...):

act; deed; human action; human activity (something that people do or cause to happen)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "discovery"):

tracing (the discovery and description of the course of development of something)

catching; detection; espial; spotting; spying (the act of detecting something; catching sight of something)

self-discovery (discovering your own individuality)

breakthrough (making an important discovery)

determination; finding (the act of determining the properties of something, usually by research or calculation)

rediscovery (the act of discovering again)

Derivation:

discover (make a discovery)

discover (make a discovery, make a new finding)

discover (see for the first time; make a discovery)

discover (discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of)

discover (find unexpectedly)

discover (get to know or become aware of, usually accidentally)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Something that is discovered

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("discovery" is a kind of...):

disclosure; revealing; revelation (the speech act of making something evident)

Derivation:

discover (get to know or become aware of, usually accidentally)

discover (make a discovery)

discover (make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret)

discover (make a discovery, make a new finding)

discover (see for the first time; make a discovery)

discover (discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of)

discover (find unexpectedly)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A productive insight

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

breakthrough; discovery; find

Hypernyms ("discovery" is a kind of...):

brainstorm; brainwave; insight (the clear (and often sudden) understanding of a complex situation)

Derivation:

discover (see for the first time; make a discovery)

discover (discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of)

discover (make a discovery, make a new finding)

discover (make a discovery)

discover (get to know or become aware of, usually accidentally)

Sense 4

Meaning:

(law) compulsory pretrial disclosure of documents relevant to a case; enables one side in a litigation to elicit information from the other side concerning the facts in the case

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("discovery" is a kind of...):

disclosure; revealing; revelation (the speech act of making something evident)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

 Context examples 

Of Dora's making a long series of surprised discoveries that she has forgotten all sorts of little things; and of everybody's running everywhere to fetch them.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Preclinical studies designed to improve cancer treatment, with an emphasis on the discovery of new drugs and treatment strategies, selective targeting, development of new preclinical models, and understanding, preventing, and overcoming drug resistance.

(Biochemistry and Pharmacology Cancer Activity, NCI Thesaurus)

The act of discovery of a malignant neoplasm, and after treatment, the discovery of minimal residual disease.

(Cancer Detection, NCI Thesaurus)

It will integrate discoveries into medical applications and address psychosocial, ethical, legal and other implications related to inherited genetic susceptibility.

(Cancer Genetics Network, NCI Thesaurus)

A sequential p-value procedure that controls expected false discovery rate.

(Benjamini-Hochberg Procedure, NCI Thesaurus)

Patients are usually asymptomatic and its discovery is an incidental finding during chest X-ray examination.

(Alveolar Adenoma, NCI Thesaurus)

They came to him without effort or discovery, as though they had been his always.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Then I looked around for the Count, but, with surprise and gladness, made a discovery.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The Antiquities Ministry has made a series of discoveries since the beginning of 2017.

(Discovery of Two Tombs Dating Back 3,500 Years Announced in Egypt, VOA)

The discovery stems from scientist Maria Harrison’s focus on plants’ symbiotic relationships with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi.

(Plant gene discovery could help reduce fertilizer pollution in waterways, National Science Foundation)