If a person is inventive, their mind keeps finding new ways to do things — not copies of what everyone else already does. An inventive cook does not only follow the recipe; an inventive child turns a cardboard box into a spaceship. You can also call a plan, a design, or a solution inventive when the idea itself feels fresh and a bit unexpected. It is almost always a compliment. It sits close to inventor, but inventor is a person who makes a new thing; inventive is the quality of thinking that way. It is a little more about clever new ideas than about building a machine, though actually the two often travel together.