Synonyms for contrivance
kənˈtraɪ vənscon·trivance

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. contrivance

   A contrivance or device may be either good or bad. A cheat is a mean advantage in a bargain; a fraud, any form of covert robbery or injury. Imposture is a deceitful contrivance for securing charity, credit, or consideration. A stratagem or maneuver may be of the good against the bad, as it were a skilful movement of war. A wile is usually but not necessarily evil.

   E'en children followed with endearing wile.

   Goldsmith Deserted Village, l. 184.

   A trick is often low, injurious, and malicious; we say a mean trick; the word is sometimes used playfully with less than its full meaning. A ruse or a blind may be quite innocent and harmless. An artifice is a carefully and delicately prepared contrivance for doing indirectly what one could not well do directly. A device is something studied out for promoting an end, as in a mechanism; the word is used of indirect action, often, but not necessarily directed to an evil, selfish, or injurious end. Finesse is especially subtle contrivance, delicate artifice, whether for good or evil. Compare FRAUD.

   Synonyms:
   art, artifice, blind, cheat, craft, cunning, device, dodge, finesse, fraud, guile, imposture, invention, machination, maneuver, ruse, stratagem, subterfuge, trick, wile

   Antonyms:
   artlessness, candor, fairness, frankness, guilelessness, honesty, ingenuousness, innocence, openness, simplicity, sincerity, truth

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. appliance, contraption, contrivance, convenience, gadget, gizmo, gismo, widgetnoun

   a device or control that is very useful for a particular job

   Synonyms:
   comfort station, doodad, gadget, lash-up, gismo, restroom, public lavatory, public convenience, thingmajig, whatsis, thingamabob, thingumajig, whatchamacallit, dodge, devisal, appliance, thingummy, doojigger, convenience, public toilet, thingmabob, toilet facility, thingamajig, stratagem, wash room, doohickey, thingumabob, widget, gimmick, contraption, gubbins, whatchamacallum, gizmo

2. contrivancenoun

   the faculty of contriving; inventive skill

   "his skillful contrivance of answers to every problem"

   Synonyms:
   stratagem, devisal, convenience, gismo, widget, gadget, appliance, lash-up, contraption, dodge, gizmo

3. contrivance, stratagem, dodgenoun

   an elaborate or deceitful scheme contrived to deceive or evade

   "his testimony was just a contrivance to throw us off the track"

   Synonyms:
   gambit, stratagem, devisal, convenience, scheme, ploy, gismo, widget, dodging, gadget, appliance, lash-up, contraption, dodge, gizmo

4. contrivancenoun

   an artificial or unnatural or obviously contrived arrangement of details or parts etc.

   "the plot contained too many improbable contrivances to be believable"

   Synonyms:
   stratagem, devisal, convenience, gismo, widget, gadget, appliance, lash-up, contraption, dodge, gizmo

5. lash-up, contrivancenoun

   any improvised arrangement for temporary use

   Synonyms:
   stratagem, devisal, convenience, gismo, widget, gadget, appliance, lash-up, contraption, dodge, gizmo

6. devisal, contrivancenoun

   the act of devising something

   Synonyms:
   stratagem, devisal, convenience, gismo, widget, gadget, appliance, lash-up, contraption, dodge, gizmo

Matched Categories

1. • Arrangement
   • Device
   • Invention
   • Scheme

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. contrivancenoun

   Synonyms:
   design, invention

2. contrivancenoun

   Synonyms:
   device, scheme, plan, plot, artifice, stratagem, complot, machination

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated WordsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. contrivancenoun

   Synonyms:
   contriving, devising, device, expedient, scheme, invention

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:0.0 / 0 votes

1. List of paraphrases for "contrivance":

   invention

How to pronounce contrivance?

How to say contrivance in sign language?

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

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Words popularity by usage frequency

How to use contrivance in a sentence?

1. Robert Collier:

   Every contrivance of man, every tool, every instrument, every utensil, every article designed for use, of each and every kind, evolved from a very simple beginning.

2. Thomas Jefferson:

   It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate - to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.

3. Samuel Johnson:

   No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into jail for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

4. Adam Smith:

   People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.

5. Edmund Burke:

   Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have right that these wants should be provided for, including the want of a sufficient restraint upon their passions.