discovery
Pluraldiscoveries
- 1A thing that has been found, learned, or uncovered, especially for the first time.
The discovery of penicillin transformed modern medicine.
Among the ruins, the team's most surprising discovery was an everyday cooking pot.
Similarfind, finding, breakthrough, revelation
Note
Behind the noun is a borrowed pattern rather than an inherited word. Discover took -ery on the model of recover and recovery, and the new noun displaced the native Old English onfundennes. As a count noun it names the find itself, so it pluralizes (discoveries) and takes qualifiers like latest or most surprising. The activity of finding belongs to the act of finding out.
- 2The act or process of finding out about new things.
The thrill of discovery drives many scientists throughout their careers.
Modern medicine advances through constant discovery and careful testing.
Similarexploration, research, investigation, detection
Note
Without an article the word names an activity, not a find: the purpose of a voyage can simply be discovery. Its range is wide. Richard Hakluyt's The Principall Navigations (1589) records Henry VII granting John Cabot and his sons a patent for the discovery of new and unknown lands. Today a web browser performs automatic discovery of RSS feeds. In both, of introduces the thing sought.
- 3The pre-trial phase of a lawsuit during which each side gathers evidence from the other.
The case stalled in discovery as both firms exchanged thousands of emails.
Her attorney requested several key documents during discovery.
Similardisclosure
Note
Litigation borrows the everyday word for a stage of the case. It is the formal pre-trial process in which parties obtain evidence from one another through depositions, interrogatories and requests for documents. As the name of a phase it takes no article: items turn up during discovery, and a case stalls in discovery. Material found this way can still be challenged, as when a party moves to suppress it.
- 4The documents and evidence that each party turns over to the opposing side during the pre-trial evidence-gathering phase.
The defense combed through the discovery looking for inconsistencies.
A crucial witness statement surfaced in the discovery the plaintiff had produced.
Similardisclosure
Note
What the evidence-gathering stage yields takes the stage's name, so the pre-trial phase and its paperwork share one word. Used this way it is a mass noun, like evidence. A party produces or turns over its discovery, and the other side combs through it or calls it inadequate. A possessive often signals this meaning: the plaintiff's discovery is a body of material, not a stage of the case.
- 5A move in which a piece steps aside to unleash an attack from another piece lined up behind it.
A well-timed discovery forced the opponent to abandon his own attack.
He set up a discovery that would win the rook two moves later.
Note
Chess players clip discovered attack to a single word and often name the piece whose line is opened. Jeremy Silman's The Amateur's Mind (1999) warns of losing a queen to a Bishop discovery on b5. The danger is a double threat: the unmasked piece attacks while the moving piece makes its own threat. When both pieces give check at once, the result is a double check.
Less common meaning
- 6An act of uncovering or revealing something hidden, amounting to a revelation.
The discovery of his true parentage altered the course of the play.
Her diary's discovery brought a startling revelation to the family.
Note
Here the person who makes a discovery is the one who tells, not the one who finds. In Le Sage's Gil Blas (1822), a lady of discretion avoids making a discovery of a suitor's passion: she keeps it secret rather than disclosing it. In older prose, test whether disclosure fits better than finding. In modern writing, use revelation or disclosure, since this sense would be misread.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of discovery apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
Formed from "discover" plus the suffix "-ery", on the pattern of the pair "recover" and "recovery". It displaced the native Old English word "onfundennes".