deus ex machina

UK/ˌdeɪ.əs ɛks ˈmækɪnə//ˌdeɪ.əs ˌɛks ˈmɑkənə/

deus ex machina noun: any resolution to a story that does not pay due regard to the story's internal logic and that is so unlikely that it challenges suspension of disbelief, and presumably allows the author, director, or developer to end the story in the way that they desired.

Noun

deus ex machina (plural dei ex machina or dei ex machinis or deus ex machinas)

Any resolution to a story that does not pay due regard to the story's internal logic and that is so unlikely that it challenges suspension of disbelief, and presumably allows the author, director, or developer to end the story in the way that they desired.
- Near-synonym: (vulgar, slang) ass-pull
- The women who merge in the final pages leave me unsettled and depressed. Their future is grim. There is no deus ex machina to save them.1975 December 13, Regina Kahney, “Sister Gin (review)”, in Gay Community News, volume 3, number 24, page 13
Synonyms:

ass-pull
(broadly) A contrived solution to a problem, relying on an agent external to the situation.
- The belief that a cure for cancer is being withheld by vested interests is a long-standing one. It is often used as a universal deus ex machina for those pushing an alternative alleged cure […]2016 January 26, David Robert Grimes, “On the Viability of Conspiratorial Beliefs”, in PLOS One, volume 11, number 1, archived from the original on 04 Feb 2025, page 3
- Handler’s bad advice for generals […] is mostly notable as the most extreme expression of peculiar pleas by Trump opponents who seek some deus ex machina that will stop the president: generals simply disobeying the president, other civil servants refusing to follow through on orders, or even the...2017 August 14, David A. Graham, “The Search for a Magical Way to Stop Trump”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 31 Aug 2017
(historical, literary) A deity in Greek and Roman drama who was brought in by stage machinery to intervene in a difficult situation (i.e., to resolve a crisis, or untangle issues surrounding it, a character logically expected to do so).
- I was going to wait for Monsieur Hyppolyte and, like a craven, hand the whole thing over to him. Let the deus ex machina fly in out of the clouds...1959, Mary Stewart, chapter XVII, in Nine Coaches Waiting, M. S. Mill Company, page 268
(historical) A machine used to bring an actor playing a god onto the stage, either up through a trapdoor or (e.g. by crane) from above.

deus ex machina meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Arabic

deus ex machina in Hindi

contrived plot resolution: डेयस एक्स माकिना ḍeyas eks mākinā

deus ex machina in Marathi

contrived plot resolution: डेउस एक्स मॅकिना ḍeus eksa mĕkinā
contrived solution to a problem: डेउस एक्स मॅकिना ḍeus eksa mĕkinā

deus ex machina in Urdu

قسمت کی پلٹ

deus ex machina in Arabic

contrived solution to a problem: الحَلّ مِنَ السَّمَاء al-ḥall mina s-samāʔ

More languagesFewer languages

deus ex machina in Indonesian: deus ex machina
deus ex machina in Thai: เทวดามาโปรด

Examples of deus ex machina in a sentence

The repeated tactic of deus ex machina (without a deus) has a deplorable effect on both the plot and the dialogue.2007 August 12, Christopher Hitchens, “Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 07 Apr 2020:
Despite the government shutdown, at the end of the last season Knope is able to put on a children's concert in the abandoned lot she's been trying to turn into a park due to a quick deus ex machina.2011 January 20, Dave Thier, “‘Parks and Recreation’: Comedy Imitates Life (Sort Of)”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 02...

Synonyms of deus ex machina

ass-pull

Forms of deus ex machina

plural	dei ex machina
plural	dei ex machinis
plural	deus ex machinas

Origin of deus ex machina

Unadapted borrowing from Latin deus ex māchinā (literally “god from a machine [i.e., a device, scaffolding, contrivance]”), a calque of Ancient Greek ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός (apò mēkhanês theós).

Questions about deus ex machina

What does deus ex machina mean?: Deus ex machina means any resolution to a story that does not pay due regard to the story's internal logic and that is so unlikely that it challenges suspension of disbelief, and presumably allows the author, director, or developer to end the story in the way that they desired.
What is deus ex machina in Hindi?: Deus ex machina in Hindi is डेयस एक्स माकिना (ḍeyas eks mākinā). See Deus ex machina meaning in Hindi.
How do you use deus ex machina in a sentence?: The repeated tactic of deus ex machina (without a deus) has a deplorable effect on both the plot and the dialogue.
What part of speech is deus ex machina?: Deus ex machina is a noun.
How do you pronounce deus ex machina?: Deus ex machina is pronounced /ˌdeɪ.əs ɛks ˈmækɪnə/ (UK).
What is the plural of deus ex machina?: The plural of deus ex machina is dei ex machina.

Words near deus ex machina in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: deus ex machina (page history and authors); deus ex machina (Urdu Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-deus ex machina.wav.

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