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say it: PAT-uhnt
patent is a verb, noun and adjective meaning "obtain a patent for". It is pronounced /ˈpætənt/ — PAT-uhnt. It carries 7 recorded senses.
a document granting an inventor sole rights to an invention
(of a bodily tube or passageway) open; affording free passage
“patent ductus arteriosus”
clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment
“the effects of the drought are apparent to anyone who sees the parched fields”
“evident hostility”
“manifest disapproval”
“patent advantages”
“made his meaning plain”
“it is plain that he is no reactionary”
“in plain view”
“a palpable lie”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for patent come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.