contrivance

Contrivance refers to a means or device designed to achieve a particular end. It can describe a physical mechanism, instrument, or gadget, especially one that appears necessary to make a process work. It can also denote an arrangement or scheme created by people to produce a desired outcome, often implying artificiality or manipulation.

Used neutrally, a contrivance can be a clever or effective solution. In pejorative usage, it suggests an overengineered or forced result that seems unnecessary or insincere.

In fiction and criticism, the phrase plot contrivance describes an element that feels artificially convenient or improbable, introduced to advance the plot rather than arising from character or logic.

Outside storytelling, contrivances appear in technology, design, or social organization: devices to automate tasks, or routines and arrangements created to achieve specific social or institutional outcomes.

Etymology: the noun contrivance derives from the verb contrive, with earliest uses in Middle English from the same root.