Word.ws English Dictionary

contrives

contrives is the third-person singular simple present indicative of contrive.

Meaning of contrive

Verb

contrive (third-person singular simple present contrives, present participle contriving, simple past and past participle contrived)

  1. To invent by an exercise of ingeniosity; to devise
    • […]I cannot bear the idea of two young women traveling post by themselves. It is highly improper. You must contrive to send somebody.1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    plan, scheme, plot, hatch, get
  2. To invent, to make devices; to form designs especially by improvisation.
  3. To project, cast, or set forth, as in a projection of light.
  4. (obsolete, transitive) To spend (time, or a period).

Words that rhyme with contrives

Questions about contrives

What is contrives the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Contrives is the third-person singular simple present indicative of contrive.

Words near contrives in the dictionary

  1. contrivedst
  2. contrivement
  3. contrivements
  4. contriver
  5. contrivers
  6. contrives
  7. contrivest
  8. contriveth
  9. contriving
  10. contrivings
  11. contrivition

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: contrives (page history and authors); contrive (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “contrives.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/contrives. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.