mechanism

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And every single part of this mechanism is actually plausible in biology.

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Definitions (18)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (9)

  1. noun A machine or mechanical appliance.
  2. noun The arrangement of connected parts in a machine.
  3. noun A system of parts that operate or interact like those of a machine: the mechanism of the solar system.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (5)

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Examples (50)

  • And every single part of this mechanism is actually plausible in biology. —  Luca Turin on the science of scent
  • This mechanism was all contained inside the lenses that were like condensed milk cans. —  039 - The Seven Agate Devils
  • "I suppose HiTek does, and that's why they keep funding the project, although if the mechanism is as complex as it's beginning to look, they'll never be able to isolate the critical variable, at which point they'll probably stop funding me." —  Futures Imperfect
  • Do you think the horses will just stand there quietly when the darts hit their bellies He claimed the mechanism was already in place at the new track. —  EQMM,January2008
  • As Doc moved the switch, a movielike image appeared on the panel This mechanism was a telephone-television apparatus of Doc's construction. —  006 - The Red Skull
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

process ·  device ·  procedure ·  pattern ·  machinery ·  factor ·  analysis ·  machine ·  response

Used in the same contextWord Family

mechanism:   mechanisms
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. New Latin mēchanismus, from Late Latin mēchanisma, from Greek mēkhanē, machine; see mechanic.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. =F. mécanisme = Spanish mecanismo = Portuguese mechanismo = Italian meccanismo, from Middle Latin *mechanismus, Late Latin mechanisma, from Greek *μηχάνισμα, contrivance, from *μηχανίζειν, contrive, from μηχανή, contrivance: see machine, mechanic
 

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/ˈmɛkənɪzm/
by American Heritage

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