Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun contrivance

6 senses of contrivance

Sense 1
appliance, contraption, contrivance, convenience, gadget, gizmo, gismo, widget -- (a device or control that is very useful for a particular job)
       => device -- (an instrumentality invented for a particular purpose; "the device is small enough to wear on your wrist"; "a device intended to conserve water")

Sense 2
contrivance -- (the faculty of contriving; inventive skill; "his skillful contrivance of answers to every problem")
       => invention, innovation, excogitation, conception, design -- (the creation of something in the mind)

Sense 3
contrivance, stratagem, dodge -- (an elaborate or deceitful scheme contrived to deceive or evade; "his testimony was just a contrivance to throw us off the track")
       => scheme, strategy -- (an elaborate and systematic plan of action)

Sense 4
contrivance -- (an artificial or unnatural or obviously contrived arrangement of details or parts etc.; "the plot contained too many improbable contrivances to be believable")
       => arrangement, organization, organisation, system -- (an organized structure for arranging or classifying; "he changed the arrangement of the topics"; "the facts were familiar but it was in the organization of them that he was original"; "he tried to understand their system of classification")

Sense 5
lash-up, contrivance -- (any improvised arrangement for temporary use)
       => arrangement -- (an orderly grouping (of things or persons) considered as a unit; the result of arranging; "a flower arrangement")

Sense 6
devisal, contrivance -- (the act of devising something)
       => invention -- (the act of inventing)