What is another word for contrivance?

Synonyms for contrivance
kənˈtraɪ vənscon·trivance

This thesaurus page includes all potential synonyms, words with the same meaning and similar terms for the word contrivance.

English Synonyms and Antonyms0.0 / 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 WordNet0.0 / 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

Dictionary of English Synonymes0.0 / 0 votes

  1. contrivancenoun

    Synonyms:
    design, invention

  2. contrivancenoun

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

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated Words0.0 / 0 votes

  1. contrivancenoun

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

PPDB, the paraphrase database0.0 / 0 votes

  1. List of paraphrases for "contrivance":

    invention

How to pronounce contrivance?

How to say contrivance in sign language?

Words popularity by usage frequency

rankingword
#338art
#1634device
#2803scheme
#4241craft
#4246blind
#4480fraud
#4626dodge
#5346convenience
#6230cheat
#6693appliance
#7155invention
#7167trick
#11686widget
#12552gadget
#23550maneuver
#25925guile
#26623cunning
#29547restroom
#29706gizmo
#33014gambit
#35918finesse
#38427ploy
#42649gimmick
#42980dodging
#43818ruse
#45134artifice
#63007wile
#75774contraption
#79016subterfuge
#87541contrivance
#98243stratagem
#149817gubbins
#183563imposture
#257287doodad
#282275whatchamacallit
#286612machination

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. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. Thomas Jefferson:

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


Translations for contrivance

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

  • приспособление, хитрина, похват, способ, средствоBulgarian
  • Vorrichtung, ErfindungGerman
  • vimpain, rekkula, vempeleFinnish
  • dispositif, appareilFrench
  • vernuft, vindingrijkheidDutch
  • artifícioPortuguese
  • устройство, выдумка, план, ухватка, ухищрение, затея, приспособлениеRussian
  • ఉపాయంTelugu

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"contrivance." Synonyms.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Mar. 2024. <https://www.synonyms.com/synonym/contrivance>.

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