What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Contraption vs Gadget - What's the difference?

contraption | gadget | Synonyms |

Gadget is a synonym of contraption.



As nouns the difference between contraption and gadget

is that contraption is a machine that is complicated and precarious while gadget is a thing whose name cannot be remembered; thingamajig, doohickey.

contraption

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A machine that is complicated and precarious.
  • (figuratively, derogatory, or, ironic) Any object.
  • *

    • Synonyms

    * (mechanical device) contrivance, device, fandango, gadget, mechanism

    References

    gadget

    English

    (wikipedia gadget)

    Alternative forms

    * gadjet

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) a thing whose name cannot be remembered; thingamajig, doohickey
  • * 1886 , Robert Brown, Spunyard and Spindrift, A Sailor Boy's Log of a Voyage Out and Home in a China Tea-clipper :
    • Then the names of all the other things on board a ship! I don't know half of them yet; even the sailors forget at times, and if the exact name of anything they want happens to slip from their memory, they call it a chicken-fixing, or a gadjet , or a timmey-noggy, or a wim-wom—just pro tem. , you know.
  • any device or machine, especially one whose name cannot be recalled. Often either clever or complicated.
    • He bought a neat new gadget for shredding potatoes.
    That's quite a lot of gadgets you have collected. Do you use any of them?

    Synonyms

    * contraption * contrivance * doohickey * gizmo * widget

    Derived terms

    * gadgety

    Anagrams

    * English placeholder terms ----