What is Ideation?

i·de·a·tion

n.
the process of forming and relating ideas


I`de*a"tion\, n. The faculty or capacity of the mind for forming ideas; the exercise of this capacity; the act of the mind by which objects of sense are apprehended and retained as objects of thought.

The whole mass of residua which have been accumulated . . . all enter now into the process of ideation. --J. D. Morell.


i·de·ate (ī'dē-āt')
v. i·de·at·ed, i·de·at·ing, i·de·ates

v. tr.
To form an idea of; imagine or conceive: "Such characters represent a grotesquely blown-up aspect of an ideal man . . . if not realizable, capable of being ideated" (Anthony Burgess).

v. intr.
To conceive mental images; think.

i'de·a'tion n., i'de·a'tion·al adj.



Source: ideation. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved August 19, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ideation