machinery

American  

[muh-shee-nuh-ree] / məˈʃi nə ri /

noun

plural

machineries

1. an assemblage of machines or mechanical apparatuses.

   the machinery of a factory.

2. the parts of a machine, collectively.

   the machinery of a watch.

3. a group of people or a system by which action is maintained or by which some result is obtained.

   the machinery of government.

   Synonyms:

   setup, structure, organization

4. a group of contrivances for producing stage effects.

5. the group or aggregate of literary machines, especially those of supernatural agency epic machinery in an epic poem.

---

machinery British  

/ məˈʃiːnərɪ /

noun

1. machines, machine parts, or machine systems collectively

2. a particular machine system or set of machines

3. a system similar to a machine

   the machinery of government

4. literary devices used for effect in epic poetry

---

Other Word Forms

• antimachinery
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of machinery

First recorded in 1680–90; machine + -ery

Explanation

Machinery refers to specific machines or machines in general. A farmer has lots of farm machinery, like tractors and plows. Machinery is also the inner workings of something — the machinery of a society is how a society works. You can refer to a group of machines as machinery, such as the machinery in a factory or the machinery in a laboratory. It’s also the inner workings of a particular machine, like the machinery that keeps your computer running. Machinery has to do with how something works or functions. The government, media, business, and family are all part of the machinery of society. The word machinery originally referred to the devices used for creating stage effects in the theater.

Example Sentences

Machinery led the sector’s recovery, while auto-industry output was up sharply following contractions in the previous three months, when several assembly plants were shut for model changes and retooling.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 30, 2026

The study was published in the Proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies.

From Science Daily • Apr. 19, 2026

Machinery breaks down and sits idle for months because parts can’t be imported or paid for through normal banking channels.

From Salon • Apr. 11, 2026

Swarmer said that “substantially all” of its revenue over the last two years was from a single company in Ukraine: Smart Machinery Solutions.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 18, 2026

The wind tore a forty-square-foot segment from the dome of the Machinery Building and lifted the roof off the fair’s Hungarian Café.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

Related Words

• apparatus
• appliance
• engine
• equipment
• gear
• instrument
• motor
• system
• tool
• utensil
• vehicle