improvisation
n.the act of making something up as you go along, rather than following a plan. You use this when you have to solve a problem quickly or perform without practice.
n.the creation or performance of something spontaneously without previous preparation. Often refers to creative arts like music and acting, or to solving a problem using only available resources.
“The actor's improvisation made the whole audience laugh.”
“When the microphone failed, the speaker's improvisation kept the crowd engaged until the technical issue was resolved.”
“While jazz relies heavily on improvisation, the performers must still adhere to an underlying harmonic structure to ensure the collective sound remains coherent and purposeful.”
Uncountable when referring to the general skill or concept; countable when referring to a specific instance or performance.
From French improvisation. Morphologically improvise + -ation.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.