Showing results for "devised"

• past participle of devise.
• past tense form of devise.

devised

American  

[dih-vahyzd] / dɪˈvaɪzd /

adjective

1. contrived, planned, invented, or designed.

   It’s a dark comedy about a couple of guys who embark on a poorly devised scheme to blackmail a local clergyman.

2. Theater. (of a play) having a script produced collaboratively by the performers rather than by a writer or playwright.

   Previous works of the Holwell Youth Troupe include a chilling ghost story and a devised piece on the topic of love.

3. Law. (of property) assigned or transmitted by will.

   When specifically devised property is no longer in the testator's estate, the beneficiary's gift fails.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of devise.

Other Word Forms

• self-devised
  adjective
• undevised
  adjective
• well-devised
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of devised

devise ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

devised

He ran successfully for class president during fifth grade, with a campaign slogan his sister devised: “Take a Hint, Vote for Clint.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

Japanese cities are experiencing "cruelly hot days", a new meteorological term devised this year to warn people of intense heat above 40C, with heatstroke alerts issued across almost the whole country.

From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026

The researchers devised a market-beating strategy for exploiting this discovery, buying those stocks that their LLM suggested would rise as the market fully discounted the pure news, and shorting stocks the model projected would fall.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 4, 2026

The pair devised an instrument they called Tonto, a 12-foot-long collection of synthesizer modules connected by cables—“the finest of Rube Goldberg machines.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026

Whoever devised the Quarter Quell system had prepared for centuries of Hunger Games.

From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins