Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act or an instance of discovering.
  • noun Something discovered.
  • noun Law The compulsory disclosure to the opposing party of factual information or documents relevant to a lawsuit prior to trial.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • The act of disclosing to view.
  • The act of revealing; a making known; a declaration; disclosure: as, a bankrupt is bound to make a full discovery of his estate and effects.
  • The act of gaining sight of; the act of espying: as, the discovery of land after a voyage.
  • The act of finding out or of bringing to knowledge what was unknown; first knowledge of anything.
  • That which is discovered, found out, or revealed; that which is first brought to light, seen, or known: as, the properties of the magnet were an important discovery.
  • In the drama, the unraveling of a plot, or the manner of unfolding the plot or story of a comedy or tragedy.
  • In law, disclosure by a party to an action, at the instance of the other party, as of facts within his memory or of a document within his control.
  • Exploration.
  • Synonyms Discovery, Invention. See invention.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The action of discovering; exposure to view; laying open; showing.
  • noun A making known; revelation; disclosure.
  • noun Finding out or ascertaining something previously unknown or unrecognized.
  • noun That which is discovered; a thing found out, or for the first time ascertained or recognized.
  • noun obsolete Exploration; examination.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Something discovered.
  • noun uncountable The discovering of new things.
  • noun law, uncountable A pre-trial phase in which evidence is gathered.
  • noun law, uncountable Materials revealed to the opposing party during the pre-trial phase in which evidence is gathered.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a productive insight
  • noun something that is discovered
  • noun the act of discovering something
  • noun (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

Etymologies

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