How to Use contrivance in a Sentence

contrivance

noun
Definition of contrivancenext
Synonyms for contrivancenext
  • The story is filled with plot contrivances that do not fit the ending.
  • Or just the writerly contrivance of their rhyming names?
    — Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Jan. 2022
  • The effect is to remind us of the contrivance of fiction.
    — David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times, 14 Sep. 2022
  • The Bad Everywhere else in this episode, contrivance rules the day.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes, 2 June 2021
  • Through a plot contrivance, Marek comes to live with Villiam.
    — New York Times, 13 June 2022
  • To their credit, the producers have fun with the contrivance.
    — Brian Lowry, CNN, 12 May 2020
  • Dell’s hiring is only the first of many plot contrivances.
    — Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 10 Jan. 2019
  • In this case, the sitcom Shakespeare is built around two contrivances.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 21 Dec. 2023
  • A lot of the things that potentially seem like contrivances turn out to be true.
    — Dennis Overbye, New York Times, 20 July 2023
  • Beneath the contrivances of stardom, music was a way of life and even a reason to go on living.
    — Lavinia Greenlaw, WSJ, 22 Dec. 2017
  • As in a classic screwball comedy, the contrivances were part of the pleasure.
    — Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 19 June 2023
  • The smallest contribution to the Biden contrivance here is . . .
    — Jack Fowler, National Review, 18 June 2023
  • The body-swapping contrivance is easier to believe than anything the film does with it.
    — Amy Nicholson, Variety, 10 Aug. 2022
  • That giant sphere is a contrivance for Luke Halls’ fanciful video images of Earth and the universe.
    — Mark Swed, latimes.com, 12 June 2019
  • To put forth this message, the film twists itself into knots of contrivance and confusion.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 30 Sep. 2023
  • Monster’s contrivances and convolutions didn’t all work for me, but the scenes the boys share in the final third are magical.
    — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Dec. 2023
  • But with the right character(s), played by the right actor(s), those contrivances become a path to the sort of joyful human connection Constance is talking about.
    — Alissa Wilkinson, Vox, 29 Aug. 2018
  • One floor above, a sister restaurant serves up limp dosas and a chicken-and-rice contrivance masquerading as biryani.
    — The Economist, 30 Sep. 2017
  • Think of this whole contrivance as a series of concentric circles.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 4 Oct. 2021
  • Weisz does full justice to the tragic realism inside the contrivance.
    — Charles Taylor, Newsweek, 7 June 2017
  • Homefield in the Series is on the line, sure, but that’s a contrivance that realistically matters to about half a dozen teams and their fans.
    — Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 26 June 2017
  • Through a contrivance of angled mirrors and canny lighting, the gap is undetectable from inside the room.
    — Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 16 May 2022
  • The movie relies a lot on flatly staged shootouts and narrative contrivances, coupled with trite tough-guy poses.
    — Noel Murray, latimes.com, 7 Sep. 2017
  • The fact that Pym’s stories sometimes end nowhere can be viewed as verisimilitude, but an awful lot depends on contrivance.
    — Thomas Mallon, The New Yorker, 30 May 2022
  • This is the basic raw material of teen movies, but the twists and tweaks to which they’re subjected here reveal more contrivance than insight.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 28 Aug. 2023
  • Meanwhile, another product from yet another firm gets the full-course meal of a plot contrivance.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2023
  • That contrivance was the last straw for many readers, and the book was cancelled by issue #19, as Kirby’s second tenure at Marvel was headed for a close.
    — Rob Salkowitz, Forbes, 29 Oct. 2021
  • The latter earned him a slap on the wrist, a five-game suspension for the coming season, while the transgressions were written off as the contrivance and failings of an underling.
    — Harvey Araton, New York Times, 28 Sep. 2017
  • One also wonders why, if the story is a throwaway contrivance, Besson drags everything out for 2 hours and 20 minutes.
    — Gary Thompson, Philly.com, 20 July 2017
  • Flat-footed contrivances, compounded by hackneyed humor and stereotypical targets, contribute to the sense that the play is always a beat behind.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 28 Jan. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'contrivance.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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