(used of persons or artifacts) marked by independence and creativity in thought or action; "an imaginative use of material"; "the invention of the knitting frame by another ingenious English clergyman"- Lewis Mumford; "an ingenious device"; "had an inventive turn of mind"; "inventive ceramics"
Able to form mental images of things not immediately available to the senses or never wholly perceived in reality; able to confront and deal with a problem in a new way.