Dictionary

contrivance en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /kənˈtɹaɪ.vəns/

Etymology

Etymology tree English contrive Proto-Indo-European *-onts Latin -ns Latin -āns Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -ia Latin -āntia Old French -ancebor. Middle English -aunce English -ance English contrivance From contrive + -ance.

Meanings

1. A (mechanical) device to perform a certain task.
2. A means, such as an elaborate plan or strategy, to accomplish a certain objective.
   • And along with each of these go their images, not the things themselves, — they too have come about by godlike contrivance. 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 266b:
   • I mean to give something as slight and inexpensive as possible; but I have been so long out of the way of these things, that I am really quite at a loss, and must throw myself on your kindness, as I hope you will be with me, and also Mr. and Mrs. Gooch. You must arrange in such a manner as not to blush for your own contrivances. 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 208:
3. Something overly artful or artificial.
   • The Harry Hamlin character is a bit of a hypochondriac, a contrivance that exists for the sole purpose of bringing him into contact with the confused young doctor at the clinic. 1982 February 13, Walta Borawski, “A Moonlight Walk in a Crimeless Park”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 29, page 7:
   • The retrospective emphasis on these two specific stories—even their mention here, in the previous paragraph—has become a contrivance. 2022, Chuck Klosterman, The Nineties, New York: Penguin Press, →ISBN:
   • When the stamens of a flower suddenly spring towards the pistil, or slowly move one after the other towards it, the contrivance seems adapted solely to ensure self-fertilisation; and no doubt it is useful for this end: but, the agency of insects is often required to cause the stamens to spring forward, as Kölreuter has shown to be the case with the barberry; and curiously in this very genus, which seems to have a special contrivance for self-fertilisation, it is well known that if very closely-allied forms or varieties are planted near each other, it is hardly possible to raise pure seedlings, so largely do they naturally cross. 1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:
4. The making of cunning or deceitful plans

Forms

Deriveds

noncontrivance

Relateds

contrive

Synonyms

contraption · engineering · scheming

Translations (63)

pt aparelho ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · bg приспособление ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · de Vorrichtung (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · pl pomysłowość (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · pl ustrojstwo ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · ru устро́йство ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · pl inwencja (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · de List (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · cmn 玩意兒 /玩意儿 ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · it artefizio (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · ru вы́думка (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · ru план (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · it marchingegno ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · es artimaña (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · de Apparat ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · ru зате́я (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · es artefacto (something overly artful or artificial) · ru приспособле́ние ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · fi rekkula ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · de Behelf ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · de Konstrukt (something overly artful or artificial) · ru ухищре́ние (something overly artful or artificial) · ro dispozitiv ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · pl urządzenie ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · tr düzenek ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · fr dispositif ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · fi vimpain ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · es artilugio (something overly artful or artificial) · fr appareil ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · pt artimanha (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · it carretta (something overly artful or artificial) · de Vorrichtung ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · ro aparat ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · nl vindingrijkheid (something overly artful or artificial) · de Planung (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · de Kniff (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · pl sztuczność (something overly artful or artificial) · bg хитрина (something overly artful or artificial) · it aggeggio ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · es estratagema (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · pt artifício (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · de Findigkeit (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · fi vempele ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · ru ухва́тка (something overly artful or artificial) · bg способ (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · de Kunstgriff (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · de Maschinerie ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · fr stratagème (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · it catorcio (something overly artful or artificial) · it sotterfugio (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · nl vernuft (something overly artful or artificial) · de Erfindung (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · bg похват (something overly artful or artificial) · de Plan (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · es artificio (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · bg средство (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · es elucubración (something overly artful or artificial) · it stratagemma (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · it espediente (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · it accorgimento (elaborate means to accomplish an objective) · it trabiccolo (something overly artful or artificial) · es aparato ((mechanical) device to perform a certain task) · es elucubración (elaborate means to accomplish an objective)