device
Pluraldevices
- 1A piece of equipment, especially a mechanical or electrical one, built to do a particular job.
Surgeons rely on a small device to monitor the patient's heart rate.
Modern kitchens are full of electrical devices.
UsageDo not confuse it with the verb devise (to plan): you devise a plan, and you use a device.
Similarappliance, gadget, instrument, apparatus, tool
- 2A piece of computer hardware, especially one connected to a main computer as a peripheral.
The operating system installs a driver whenever a new device is attached.
Storage devices like external drives connect through a single cable.
UsageOften in compounds: storage device, input device, output device, peripheral device.
Similarperipheral
Note
Computing narrows the word to hardware: the physical units a computer works with, whether built in or attached as peripherals, typically reached by the operating system through a driver. In this field a device is usually set against software: it is a physical part, though systems also speak of virtual devices that only imitate one. The broader idea of purpose-built equipment is still there, but the computer is now the fixed point of reference.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Device drivers commonly provide this communication, but not every hardware component requires one; RAM is an exception. hyperpc.ae
- Computer systems can provide virtual devices that emulate physical hardware. microsoft.com
- 3A technique an author or speaker uses to achieve a particular effect, such as emphasis, suspense, or an emotional response.
The author's favorite device is a sudden shift to the present tense at moments of crisis.
Cliffhangers are among the oldest narrative devices for holding an audience.
UsageUsually with a word in front: literary device, rhetorical device, plot device.
Similartechnique
Note
Critics often give the word a qualifier: rhetorical device, literary device, narrative device. Each names a deliberate technique, such as metaphor, anaphora or dramatic irony, chosen for its effect on the audience. The word keeps a trace of contrivance that ties it to the scheming meaning. A device of this kind is an artifice too, though some work quietly and others openly show how the work is built.
- 4A bomb, especially a home-made one built from improvised materials; an improvised explosive device.
Engineers were called in to defuse a device planted under the bridge.
Insurgents concealed crude devices along the supply route.
UsageIn news reports, usually in set phrases: an explosive device, a suspect device, an incendiary device.
Note
Police and news reports in Ireland, Britain, the US and elsewhere use the bare noun for a bomb, especially a home-made one, and it travels in fixed phrases. A suspect device is an object suspected of being a bomb; a viable device could really explode, unlike a hoax. Bomb disposal teams render it safe or carry out controlled explosions on it.
Less common meanings
- 5A scheme or plan, frequently meant to deceive others; a stratagem or piece of trickery.
The whole charade was a device to lure his rival into the open.
Politicians resorted to all manner of devices to delay the vote.
UsageOften followed by to + verb or for: a device to lure him out, a device for avoiding tax.
Similarploy, ruse, trick, scheme, stratagem
Note
Behind the scheming meaning lies a Latin word for dividing. Dīvīsus, from dīvidō, came through Old French devis and devise into Middle English, and device is a doublet of the noun devise. A device here is something planned out, often slyly: the King James Bible of 1611 speaks of "the devices of the crafty." Henry Hallam (1827) uses the pattern device of + -ing for a political expedient: "their recent device of demanding benevolences."
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Device derives through Middle English and Old French devis and devise from Latin dīvīsus, the past participle of dīvidō, meaning to divide. en.wiktionary.org
- Device is a doublet of the noun devise. en.wiktionary.org
- The King James Bible was first published in 1611. en.wikipedia.org
- The King James Bible contains the words “the devices of the crafty.” en.wikisource.org
- The Hallam work containing the quotation, The Constitutional History of England, was first published in 1827. gutenberg.org
- Henry Hallam wrote “their recent device of demanding benevolences,” referring to a political expedient and using device of followed by an -ing form. gutenberg.org
- 6An emblem, design, or motto that serves as one bearer's personal mark, or an image used as a trademark or a sign of official authority.
The earl's device, a golden falcon, appeared on every seal he used.
Heralds recorded the devices borne by each tournament competitor.
Note
Heraldry uses the word for a mark that stands for its bearer. A device could be a picture, a motto or both, and in the Renaissance it was highly personal, chosen to express one bearer's character or aims. Older writers set it against a badge or cognizance, which passed from one member of a house to the next, but in practice the terms overlap.
- 7The faculty of devising things; inventiveness or ingenuity in contrivance.
And she said, "We are all prisoners here, Of our own device"
1976, The Eagles, Hotel CaliforniaMoreover I must have instruments of mine own device, weighty, and exceeding costly
1824, Walter Savage Landor, “King Henry IV and Sir Arnold Savage”Note
Here the word names the faculty itself rather than its products, and on its own it is archaic. It lives on in the phrase of one's own device. In Walter Savage Landor's Imaginary Conversations (1824), King Henry IV calls for siege machines and other "instruments of mine own device." Outside that phrase it sounds old-fashioned. A modern writer would say ingenuity or invention.
- 8An elaborate spectacle, show, or staged entertainment mounted for an audience.
Note
A courtly entertainment word, now obsolete, that kept company with masque. James Shirley's play The Coronation, first printed in 1640 under John Fletcher's name, welcomes "Masques, and devices" in a single breath. A show was a contrived thing, which is how a word for a scheme could also name a spectacle. In a modern sentence it would be misread as a gadget, so use pageant or spectacle instead.
- 9A person's opinion, judgment, or settled decision on a matter.
Note
Nobody uses it this way now, and it is easily misread. A modern reader who sees someone's device thinks of a plan or a gadget, not a judgment. It sits close to the scheming meaning, since both are about what a mind has devised, but it names the conclusion reached rather than the plot. In older texts, try reading opinion or decision in its place.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- An obsolete sense of device means opinion or decision. en.wiktionary.org
- 10A particular class of wordplay element used to build a cryptic crossword clue, such as an anagram, hidden word, or homophone.
Practice
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Origin
It comes from Middle English "devis" or "devise," from Old French "devis" and "devise," which trace back to Latin "dīvīsus," the past participle of "dīvidō" ("to divide"). It is a doublet of the noun "devise."
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Device comes through Middle English devis or devise from Old French devis and devise. en.wiktionary.org
- The Old French forms ultimately derive from Latin dīvīsus. en.wiktionary.org
- Dīvīsus is the past participle of dīvidō, meaning to divide. en.wiktionary.org
- Device and the noun devise are doublets. en.wiktionary.org