Word.ws English Dictionary

devise

Syllables: de·vise/dɪˈvaɪz/

devise verb: to use one’s intellect to plan or design (something).

Verb

devise (third-person singular simple present devises, present participle devising, simple past and past participle devised)

  1. (transitive) To use one’s intellect to plan or design (something).
    • Near-synonyms: lay, set, design, plan, create
    • to devise an argument; to devise a machine, or a new system of writing
    Synonyms:
    lay, set, design, plan, create
  2. (transitive) To leave (property) in a will.
  3. (archaic, intransitive) To form a scheme; to lay a plan; to contrive; to consider.
    • I thought, devised, and Pallas heard my prayer.1725, Homer, “Book IX”, in [William Broome], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume II, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC
  4. (archaic, transitive) To plan or scheme for; to plot to obtain.
    • For wisedome is most riches; fooles therefore / They are, which fortunes doe by vowes deuize,1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 30
  5. (obsolete) To imagine; to guess.
    • I do protest I neuer iniur’d thee,
      But lou’d thee better then thou can’st deuise:
      Till thou shalt know the reason of my loue.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

Noun

devise (plural devises)

  1. The act of leaving real property in a will.
  2. Such a will, or a clause in such a will.
    • Fines upon devises were still exacted.1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC
  3. The real property left in such a will.
  4. Design, devising.
    • I don't know how I got to be so sour on life, but I'm constantly in solitary confinement of my own devise, […]2010, Carl Anderson, Fragments of a Scattered Brain, →ISBN, page 83

devise meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

devise in Tamil

உருவாக்கு, திட்டமிடு, ஏற்படுத்துதல், ஏற்பாடு

devise in Urdu

فکر کرنا, سوچنا, ترکیب گھڑنا

devise in Bengali

উদ্ভাবন করা

devise in Malayalam

പര്യാലോചിക്കുക, കണ്ടുപിടിക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
devise in Kannada
ಹಮ್ಮು, ಹಮ್ಮುಗೆ, ಉಪಾಯ ಮಾಡು, ಪಿತೂರಿ ಮಾಡು
devise in Vietnamese
đề ra, vạch ra

Examples of devise in a sentence

  • They had quite a racket devised to relieve customers of their money.
  • Not knowing of established definitions would be grounds for selecting or devising a working definition.
  • Traditional retailers are devising strategies to counteract the threat from showrooming.

All 40 example sentences with devise

Synonyms of devise

All synonyms of devise

Forms of devise

Verb
third-person singular presentdevises
present participledevising
past participledevised
pastdevised
Noun
pluraldevises

Past tense of devise: devised

Origin of devise

PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English devisen, devysen, from Old French deviser, from Vulgar Latin devisō, from Latin dīvisō, frequentative of dīvidō.

From Middle French devise. Doublet of device.

Words formed from devise

Words that rhyme with devise

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about devise

What does devise mean?
Devise means to use one’s intellect to plan or design (something).
What is devise in Tamil?
Devise in Tamil is உருவாக்கு, திட்டமிடு, ஏற்படுத்துதல். See Devise meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is devise?
Devise can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce devise?
Devise is pronounced /dɪˈvaɪz/.
What is the past tense of devise?
The past tense of devise is devised.

Words near devise in the dictionary

  1. devis
  2. devisability
  3. devisable
  4. devisal
  5. devisals
  6. devise
  7. devised
  8. devisedst
  9. devisee
  10. devisees
  11. devisement

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: devise (page history and authors); devise (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); devise (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); devise (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); devise (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); devise (Kannada 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-devise.ogg.

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