What is invention? What is invention? The act or process of inventing: used a technique of her own invention. A new device, method, or process developed from study and experimentation: the phonograph, an invention attributed to Thomas Edison. A mental fabrication, especially a falsehood.Skill in inventing; inventiveness: "the invention and sweep of the staging” ( John Simon). Music A short composition developing a single theme contrapuntally.A discovery; a finding.