contrivance
Americannoun
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something contrived; a device, especially a mechanical one.
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the act or manner of contriving; the faculty or power of contriving.
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a plan or scheme; expedient.
noun
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something contrived, esp an ingenious device; contraption
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the act or faculty of devising or adapting; inventive skill or ability
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an artificial rather than natural selection or arrangement of details, parts, etc
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an elaborate or deceitful plan or expedient; stratagem
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of contrivance
Explanation
A contrivance is a gadget or device that can be used for some particular purpose. The spinning blade of a blender is a contrivance that turns fruits and yogurt into a tasty smoothie. Yum. A contrivance is a useful device or tool. It might be assembled or invented, and it's often mechanical, although you can really refer to anything that's made for a specific purpose as a contrivance. The word sometimes also implies a falseness or obviousness, like the contrivance of a spy's very fake-looking beard that's supposed to disguise him, or the contrivance of a novel's complicated, unbelievable plot.
Vocabulary lists containing contrivance
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards
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"'Blaxicans' and Other Reinvented Americans," Vocabulary from the argument
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Bless Me, Ultima
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The self-taught machinist started tinkering, and about a year and a half-dozen iterations later, he had the Contrivance, a forerunner of today’s Proto Pipe and he decided to move to San Francisco.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 27, 2021
Barker was granted a patent in 1787 for “an entire new Contrivance of Apparatus ... for the Purpose of displaying Views of Nature at large.”
From New York Times • Nov. 3, 2016
Contrivance can have a long arm too; eventually this one breaks.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 19, 2010
There was no Man like him for Invention and Contrivance: And then for Execution, he spar’d no Labour and Pains to compass his magnanimous Designs.
From A Learned Dissertation on Dumpling (1726) [and] Pudding and Dumpling Burnt to Pot. Or a Compleat Key to the Dissertation on Dumpling (1727) by Macey, Samuel L.
Contrivance followed contrivance, each one making it possible for women to do more.
From The Position of Woman in Primitive Society A Study of the Matriarchy by Hartley, C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
