# machinery

Pronunciation: say "muh-SHEE-nuh-ree" /məˈʃiːnəɹi/

## Noun

1. The machines that together make up the production equipment of a factory or plant.
   - Simple: The big machines used together in a factory to make things.
   - _The plant's heavy machinery runs around the clock during peak season._
   - _Installing the new machinery took the assembly line offline for a week._
2. The combined parts or processes that allow a system or organization to function.
   - Simple: All the parts of a system that work together to keep it going.
   - _The vast machinery of the federal government rarely moves quickly._
   - _Behind every election lies the complex machinery of campaign organizing._
3. The working parts of a single machine, considered together as a group.
   - Simple: The moving parts inside a machine that make it work.
   - _A loose screw had jammed the printer's delicate machinery._
   - _Engineers stripped down the engine to inspect its internal machinery._
4. The literary devices employed in a work, especially those producing dramatic effect.
   - Simple: The tools and tricks a writer uses to make a story more dramatic.
   - _The poem's supernatural machinery (gods, spirits, and prophecy) drives its grandest scenes._
   - _Critics admired the subtle machinery the novelist used to build suspense._

## Origin

Formed from "machine" plus the suffix "-ery," comparable to French "machinerie."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/machinery (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).