Word.ws English Dictionary

lateral thinking

lateral thinking noun: the use of reasoned thought in a nonstandard, or nonlinear logical way to find a solution to a problem.

Noun

lateral thinking (uncountable)

  1. The use of reasoned thought in a nonstandard, or nonlinear logical way to find a solution to a problem.

lateral thinking meaning in Tamil

lateral thinking in Tamil

பக்கவாட்டுச் சிந்தனை, மாற்றுச் சிந்தனை, குறுக்குச் சிந்தனை

Origin of lateral thinking

Coined by Edward de Bono in 1967.

Questions about lateral thinking

What does lateral thinking mean?
Lateral thinking means the use of reasoned thought in a nonstandard, or nonlinear logical way to find a solution to a problem.
What is lateral thinking in Tamil?
Lateral thinking in Tamil is பக்கவாட்டுச் சிந்தனை, மாற்றுச் சிந்தனை, குறுக்குச் சிந்தனை. See Lateral thinking meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is lateral thinking?
Lateral thinking is a noun.

Words near lateral thinking in the dictionary

  1. lateral sulci
  2. lateral sulcus
  3. lateral surface
  4. lateral thinker
  5. lateral thinkers
  6. lateral thinking
  7. lateral transfer
  8. lateral transfers
  9. lateraled
  10. lateraling
  11. lateralisation

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lateral thinking (page history and authors); lateral thinking (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “lateral thinking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lateral_thinking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.