contrivance

contrivance

noun

Definition of CONTRIVANCE

1

an interesting and often novel device with a practical use <a new contrivance for cleaning computer keyboards>

Synonyms appliance, contraption, contrivance, gimmick, gizmo (also gismo), jigger, widget

Related Words implement, instrument, tool, utensil; ingenuity, innovation, invention; accessory (also accessary), adjunct; mechanism, trick; dingus, doodad, doohickey, hickey, hootenanny [chiefly dialect], thingamabob, thingamajig (or thingumajig), thingummy

2

something (as a device) created for the first time through the use of the imagination <despite the many modern contrivances for saving time and labor, we seem to have less leisure and energy than ever before>

Synonyms brainchild, coinage, concoction, contrivance, creation, innovation, wrinkle

Related Words contraption, device, gadget, gizmo (also gismo), novelty; design, product, work; dream, fantasy (also phantasy), picture, vision; conception, imagining, origination

Near Antonyms carbon copy, clone, copy, dupe, duplicate, duplication, facsimile, imitation, reduplication, replica, replication, reproduction

3

the ability to form mental images of things that either are not physically present or have never been conceived or created by others <in that writer's hands, narrative contrivance can often deteriorate into pointless gimmickry>

Synonyms contrivance, creativity, fancy, fantasy (also phantasy), ideation, imaginativeness, invention, inventiveness, originality

Related Words brainstorm, brainstorming, inspiration; fecundity, fertility; ingenuity, resourcefulness; versatility; chimera, daydream, delusion, dream, figment, hallucination, illusion, mind's eye, mirage, phantasm (also fantasm), pipe dream; envisaging, visualization

Near Antonyms literality, literalness