contrivance

1 an interesting and often novel device with a practical use a new contrivance for cleaning computer keyboards Synonyms appliance, contraption, gadget, gimmick, gizmo (also gismo), jigger, widgetRelated 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, invention, creation, innovation, wrinkleRelated Words contraption, device, gadget, gizmo (also gismo), novelty; design, product, work; dream, fantasy (also phantasy), picture, vision; conception, imagining, originationNear 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 imagination, creativity, fancy, fantasy (also phantasy), ideation, imaginativeness, invention, inventiveness, originalityRelated 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, visualizationNear Antonyms literality, literalness