Definition of "discovery" []

• The act or an instance of discovering. (noun)
• Something discovered. (noun)
• Law The compulsory disclosure of pertinent facts or documents to the opposing party in a civil action, usually before a trial begins. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "But it would be right to say, _The discovery of America was more important THAN ANY OTHER geographical discovery_."
• "_The discovery of America was MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANY geographical discovery_, for that is saying that the discovery of America was more important than itself -- an absurdity."
• "They have been increased in a certain appreciable proportion by _discovery_; and as discovery has been made chiefly in islands, -- for the great continents had been previously known, -- and as the mammals of islands, as has been well remarked by Cuvier, are usually small, of this appreciable proportion the bulk is comparatively not great."