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Did you mean Deus ex- machina?

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. In Greek and Roman drama, a god lowered by stage machinery to resolve a plot or extricate the protagonist from a difficult situation.
  2. n. An unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation or untangle a plot.
  3. n. A person or event that provides a sudden and unexpected solution to a difficulty.

Wiktionary

  1. n. 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 he or she desired
  2. n. A contrived solution to a problem, relying on an agent external to the situation.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. any active agent who appears unexpectedly to solve an insoluble difficulty

Etymologies

  1. New Latin deus ex māchinā : Latin deus, god + Latin ex, from + Latin māchinā, ablative of māchina, machine (translation of Greek theos apo mēkhanēs).

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Lists

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Comments

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  • quotato When World War Two ended with Atomic Bombs, those Atomic Bombs were the ultimate Deus ex machina... Jun 21, 2009

  • ofravens as per dictionary.com: "an agent who appears unexpectedly to solve an apparently insoluble difficulty." fabulous. Apr 8, 2008

  • reesetee Good grief, sionnach--how could you have forgotten that it was chained_bear? No one's as weird--er...as creative--at such lists. Mar 11, 2008

  • sionnach Once again with the lemur-libelling. What is *wrong* with you people?

    OK, I probably should link to the relevant discussion so that people can understand this comment, but I've forgotten who had the 'this is not a Christmas word' list. No, wait - here it is! Mar 11, 2008

  • lindaness As in the trick Scott Adams' employs of having some improbable solution arrive at the end of the Drunken Lemurs Strike Back story:

    http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2008/02/drunken-lemurs.html Mar 10, 2008

‘deus ex machina’ has been looked up 1726 times, loved by 6 people, added to 83 lists, commented on 5 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.