machinery
Americannoun
-
machineries
plural
-
an assemblage of machines or mechanical apparatuses.
the machinery of a factory.
-
the parts of a machine, collectively.
the machinery of a watch.
-
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
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a group of contrivances for producing stage effects.
-
the group or aggregate of literary machines, especially those of supernatural agency epic machinery in an epic poem.
noun
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machines, machine parts, or machine systems collectively
-
a particular machine system or set of machines
-
a system similar to a machine
the machinery of government
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literary devices used for effect in epic poetry
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of machinery
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.
Vocabulary lists containing machinery
Engineering - Introductory
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Mechanical Engineering
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Engineering - Middle School
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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.
See Examples For:
She also had to learn about machinery, product development, making ice cream and paying wages.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
Companies such as Caterpillar and Cummins are pivoting to feed a booming market for once-prosaic machinery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
It comes as the party prepares to publish its 50-page plan on Monday for what Jenrick described as the "most comprehensive redesign of the welfare system's machinery in a generation".
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
In Ganim, about two dozen pre-fabricated homes have already been installed, while steamrollers and other construction machinery busily created new space for future houses on the hillside on Thursday.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
They have all the law and all the machinery on their side.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
This study will pave the way for new treatments of diseases caused by faulty epigenetic machineries.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 6, 2024
Export growth of machineries and hi-tech products were strong.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 7, 2021
Something is broken in our system if the machineries of war endure all strategies and policy changes, if only for the sake of enduring.
From New York Times ● Dec. 29, 2018
It should also cause us to ask hard questions about our “technologies” of research ethics—the machineries of evaluation that experiments must pass through.
From Slate ● Dec. 4, 2018
It is all clangings and bangings as tiles are spat out by big machineries onto what is called a conveyor belt.
From "Beast Rider" by Tony Johnston & María Elena Fontanot de Rhoads
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.
