machinery
Americannoun
plural
machineries-
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
-
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
-
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
-
literary devices used for effect in epic poetry
Other Word Forms
- antimachinery adjective
Etymology
Origin of machinery
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.
Her machinery allowed households to produce meal more reliably and in greater quantities and supported the shift from subsistence hand-pounding to mechanized milling.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026
Those include a protected bay with deep channels, an entrance wide enough for ships, land for laying out the giant blades and steel towers, and access to heavy machinery to piece them together.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026
Using cryo-electron microscopy, the team was able to observe how DHX29 physically interacts with the 80S ribosome, the cellular machinery responsible for protein production.
From Science Daily • Apr. 9, 2026
Red diesel, a fuel used by farmers in off-road vehicles, machinery and heating has seen its price pushed up by the soaring cost of brent crude - the global benchmark for oil prices.
From BBC • Apr. 8, 2026
He told me I should never feel beholden to him or to the machinery of the campaign.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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.
