🎭 Unnatural detail 🕵️ A trick or plan 🔧 A device 💡 Inventive skill

contrivance

3 8.7

A forced detail in a story that feels unreal

noun
/kənˈtraɪvəns/

Literature

: artificio

Edge of Heaven mostly avoids the contrivance that often encumbers films with interlocking narratives.
a plot contrivance
so artificial a contrivance

Examples

None of this adds up; the painfully obvious contrivance of the entire matter speaks for itself.

Blog text (18)
That's not the movies we knew and loved; that's a plot contrivance on an episode of 24.

Blog text (7)
The writer's use of improbable events felt like a contrivance rather than a natural progression of the story.
He criticized the ending of the movie as a mere contrivance that undermined the character development.
In her review, she mentioned that the plot twist seemed like a contrivance forced to elicit a surprise.

Synonyms

window dressing

vscontrivance

Informal

8 5.6

An action that makes something look better than it really is to hide problems

is an artificial arrangement that looks forced or unreal rather than hiding faults

concoction

vscontrivance

4 6.3

An invented story or plan made to trick people

is about arranging details in an artificial way rather than inventing a story

Antonyms

naturalness

1 3.9

Being genuine and not showing forced or fake feelings

How Artificial

contrivance

Literature

3 8.7

artifice

Formal

11 8.1

gimmick

64 5.6

device

∞ 2.1

natural phenomenon

7 3.7

Surface Forms

contrivance singular

contrivances plural

Morphology

contrivance = contrive (transparent) = contrive + ance

The nominal sense (a contrivance in plot or arrangement) is a direct extension of something contrived, so the derivation is regular and understandable.

Etymology

Contrivance comes from the verb contrive, which means 'to plan' or 'to arrange'. That is why a contrivance can mean an artificial or forced arrangement of details that feels made on purpose rather than natural.