ORIGINALITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does originality mean? 

• ORIGINALITY (noun)
  The noun ORIGINALITY has 2 senses:

1. the ability to think and act independently

2. the quality of being new and original (not derived from something else)

  Familiarity information: ORIGINALITY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ORIGINALITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The ability to think and act independently

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

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

ability; power (possession of the qualities (especially mental qualities) required to do something or get something done)

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

innovativeness (originality by virtue of introducing new ideas)

unconventionality (originality by virtue of being unconventional)

freshness; novelty (originality by virtue of being new and surprising)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of being new and original (not derived from something else)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

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

quality (an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone)

Attribute:

original (being or productive of something fresh and unusual; or being as first made or thought of)

unoriginal (not original; not being or productive of something fresh and unusual)

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

freshness; novelty (originality by virtue of being refreshingly novel)

heterodoxy; unorthodoxy (the quality of being unorthodox)

Antonym:

unoriginality (the quality of being unoriginal)

Derivation:

original (being or productive of something fresh and unusual; or being as first made or thought of)

 Context examples 

I suppose there never was a young man with less originality than I have.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I don't think she can ever have been pretty; but, for aught I know, she may possess originality and strength of character to compensate for the want of personal advantages.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Man, or at least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And yet they, of all creatures under the sun the most unfit, are the very creatures who decide what shall and what shall not find its way into print—they, who have proved themselves not original, who have demonstrated that they lack the divine fire, sit in judgment upon originality and genius.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The following conversation, which took place between the two friends in the pump-room one morning, after an acquaintance of eight or nine days, is given as a specimen of their very warm attachment, and of the delicacy, discretion, originality of thought, and literary taste which marked the reasonableness of that attachment.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

As a Gemini, you are not known to be a materialistic sign—you prefer a world of concepts and ideas, communication, and originality, and that is where you are likely to direct your energy.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

And their function is to catch all the young fellows attending the university, to drive out of their minds any glimmering originality that may chance to be there, and to put upon them the stamp of the established.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I had not, it seems, the originality to chalk out a new road to shame and destruction, but trode the old track with stupid exactness not to deviate an inch from the beaten centre.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Of course, if originality counts—

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)