I was looking through the thesaurus on my computer for creative words and stumbled on this:
Everyone likes to think that he or she is creative, which is used to describe the active, exploratory minds possessed by artists, writers, and inventors (: a creative approach to problem-solving). Today, however, creative has become an advertising buzzword (: creative cooking,: creative hair-styling) that simply means new or different. Original is more specific and limited in scope. Someone who is original comes up with things that no one else has thought of (: an original approach to constructing a doghouse), or thinks in an independent and creative way (: a highly original filmmaker). Imaginative implies having an active and creative imagination, which often means that the person visualizes things quite differently than the way they appear in the real world (: imaginative illustrations for a children’s book). The practical side of imaginative is inventive; the inventive person figures out how to make things work (: an inventive solution to the problem of getting a wheelchair into a van). But where an inventive mind tends to comes up with solutions to problems it has posed for itself, a resourceful mind deals successfully with externally imposed problems or limitations (: A resourceful child can amuse herself with simple wooden blocks). Someone who is ingenious is both inventive and resourceful, with a dose of cleverness thrown in (: the ingenious idea of using recycled plastic to create a warm, fleecelike fabric).
Thought that was interesting…
