See deus ex machina in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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"ref": "1975 December 13, Regina Kahney, “Sister Gin (review)”, in Gay Community News, volume 3, number 24, page 13:",
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"ref": "2007 August 12, Christopher Hitchens, “Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived”, in New York Times:",
"text": "The repeated tactic of deus ex machina (without a deus) has a deplorable effect on both the plot and the dialogue.",
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"ref": "2011 January 20, Dave Thier, “‘Parks and Recreation’: Comedy Imitates Life (Sort Of)”, in The Atlantic:",
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"ref": "2017 June 26, David Sims, “How Will ‘Silicon Valley’ Work Without T.J. Miller?”, in The Atlantic:",
"text": "Compared to that, the season-four finale “Server Error” felt comparatively tame, focusing mostly on Richard’s maniacal efforts to create a new kind of internet, which were helped along by a confusing deus ex machina.",
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"roman": "apó michanís theós",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"word": "από μηχανής θεός"
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"roman": "don den gaeshi",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"word": "どんでん返し"
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"_dis1": "42 24 21 13",
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"roman": "deusu ekusu makina",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"word": "デウスエクスマキナ"
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"roman": "de'useu ekseu makina",
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"ref": "2017 August 14, David A. Graham, “The Search for a Magical Way to Stop Trump”, in The Atlantic:",
"text": "Handler’s bad advice for generals […] is mostly notable as the most extreme expression of peculiar pleas by Trump opponents who seek some deus ex machina that will stop the president: generals simply disobeying the president, other civil servants refusing to follow through on orders, or even the invocation of the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.",
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],
"glosses": [
"A machine used to bring an actor playing a god onto the stage, either up through a trapdoor or (e.g. by crane) from above."
],
"id": "en-deus_ex_machina-en-noun-0rPHxMmi",
"links": [
[
"machine",
"machine"
],
[
"actor",
"actor"
],
[
"god",
"god"
],
[
"stage",
"stage"
],
[
"trapdoor",
"trapdoor"
],
[
"crane",
"crane"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(historical) A machine used to bring an actor playing a god onto the stage, either up through a trapdoor or (e.g. by crane) from above."
],
"tags": [
"historical"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈdeɪ.əs ɛks ˈmækɪnə/"
},
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-deus ex machina.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/06/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-deus_ex_machina.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-deus_ex_machina.wav.mp3",
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}
],
"wikipedia": [
"deus ex machina"
],
"word": "deus ex machina"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms borrowed from Latin",
"English terms derived from Ancient Greek",
"English terms derived from Latin",
"English unadapted borrowings from Latin",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 5 entries",
"Pages with entries",
"Requests for review of Mandarin translations",
"Terms with Ancient Greek translations",
"Terms with Arabic translations",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with French translations",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Greek translations",
"Terms with Italian translations",
"Terms with Japanese translations",
"Terms with Korean translations",
"Terms with Mandarin translations",
"Terms with Marathi translations",
"Terms with Norwegian translations",
"Terms with Polish translations",
"Terms with Portuguese translations",
"Terms with Russian translations",
"Terms with Spanish translations",
"Terms with Swedish translations",
"en:Fiction",
"en:Narratology",
"en:Plot devices"
],
"coordinate_terms": [
{
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "dea ex machina"
}
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "la",
"3": "deus ex māchinā",
"lit": "god from a machine, i.e., a device, a scaffolding, an artifice"
},
"expansion": "Unadapted borrowing from Latin deus ex māchinā (literally “god from a machine, i.e., a device, a scaffolding, an artifice”)",
"name": "ubor"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "grc",
"3": "-"
},
"expansion": "Ancient Greek",
"name": "der"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Unadapted borrowing from Latin deus ex māchinā (literally “god from a machine, i.e., a device, a scaffolding, an artifice”), from Ancient Greek.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "dei ex machina",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "dei ex machinis",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "deus ex machinas",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "dei ex machina",
"2": "dei ex machinis",
"3": "s",
"nolinkhead": "1"
},
"expansion": "deus ex machina (plural dei ex machina or dei ex machinis or deus ex machinas)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1975 December 13, Regina Kahney, “Sister Gin (review)”, in Gay Community News, volume 3, number 24, page 13:",
"text": "The women who merge in the final pages leave me unsettled and depressed. Their future is grim. There is no deus ex machina to save them.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007 August 12, Christopher Hitchens, “Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived”, in New York Times:",
"text": "The repeated tactic of deus ex machina (without a deus) has a deplorable effect on both the plot and the dialogue.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2011 January 20, Dave Thier, “‘Parks and Recreation’: Comedy Imitates Life (Sort Of)”, in The Atlantic:",
"text": "Despite the government shutdown, at the end of the last season Knope is able to put on a children's concert in the abandoned lot she's been trying to turn into a park due to a quick deus ex machina.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2017 June 26, David Sims, “How Will ‘Silicon Valley’ Work Without T.J. Miller?”, in The Atlantic:",
"text": "Compared to that, the season-four finale “Server Error” felt comparatively tame, focusing mostly on Richard’s maniacal efforts to create a new kind of internet, which were helped along by a confusing deus ex machina.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"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 they desired."
],
"links": [
[
"resolution",
"resolution"
],
[
"due",
"due"
],
[
"regard",
"regard"
],
[
"internal",
"internal"
],
[
"logic",
"logic"
],
[
"suspension of disbelief",
"suspension of disbelief"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(authorship) 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 they desired."
],
"topics": [
"authorship",
"broadcasting",
"communications",
"film",
"journalism",
"literature",
"media",
"publishing",
"television",
"writing"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2017 August 14, David A. Graham, “The Search for a Magical Way to Stop Trump”, in The Atlantic:",
"text": "Handler’s bad advice for generals […] is mostly notable as the most extreme expression of peculiar pleas by Trump opponents who seek some deus ex machina that will stop the president: generals simply disobeying the president, other civil servants refusing to follow through on orders, or even the invocation of the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A contrived solution to a problem, relying on an agent external to the situation."
],
"links": [
[
"contrived",
"contrived"
],
[
"solution",
"solution"
],
[
"agent",
"agent"
],
[
"external",
"external"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(by extension) A contrived solution to a problem, relying on an agent external to the situation."
],
"tags": [
"broadly"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English literary terms",
"English terms with historical senses",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1959, Mary Stewart, chapter XVII, in Nine Coaches Waiting, M. S. Mill Company, page 268:",
"text": "I was going to wait for Monsieur Hyppolyte and, like a craven, hand the whole thing over to him. Let the deus ex machina fly in out of the clouds...",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A deity in Greek and Roman drama who was brought in by stage machinery to intervene in a difficult situation (i.e., to resolve a crisis, or untangle issues surrounding it, a character logically expected to do so)."
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(historical, literary) A deity in Greek and Roman drama who was brought in by stage machinery to intervene in a difficult situation (i.e., to resolve a crisis, or untangle issues surrounding it, a character logically expected to do so)."
],
"tags": [
"historical",
"literary"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with historical senses"
],
"glosses": [
"A machine used to bring an actor playing a god onto the stage, either up through a trapdoor or (e.g. by crane) from above."
],
"links": [
[
"machine",
"machine"
],
[
"actor",
"actor"
],
[
"god",
"god"
],
[
"stage",
"stage"
],
[
"trapdoor",
"trapdoor"
],
[
"crane",
"crane"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(historical) A machine used to bring an actor playing a god onto the stage, either up through a trapdoor or (e.g. by crane) from above."
],
"tags": [
"historical"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈdeɪ.əs ɛks ˈmækɪnə/"
},
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-deus ex machina.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/06/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-deus_ex_machina.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-deus_ex_machina.wav.mp3",
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}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"word": "機械降神"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "jīxiè jiàng shén",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"word": "机械降神"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"word": "keinotekoinen juonenkäänne"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"word": "deus ex machina"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "deus ex machina"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Deus ex Machina"
},
{
"code": "grc",
"lang": "Ancient Greek",
"roman": "apò mēkhanês theós",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"word": "ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Modern Greek",
"roman": "apó michanís theós",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"word": "από μηχανής θεός"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "deus ex machina"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "don den gaeshi",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"word": "どんでん返し"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "deusu ekusu makina",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"word": "デウスエクスマキナ"
},
{
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "de'useu ekseu makina",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"word": "데우스 엑스 마키나"
},
{
"code": "mr",
"lang": "Marathi",
"roman": "ḍeus eksa mĕkinā",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"word": "डेउस एक्स मॅकिना"
},
{
"code": "no",
"lang": "Norwegian",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"word": "reddende engel"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "deus ex machina"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "deus ex machina"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "dɛ́us eks máxina",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "де́ус экс ма́хина"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "box iz mašíny",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "«бог из маши́ны»"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"english": "lit: a grand piano in the bush",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "rojálʹ v kustáx",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"word": "роя́ль в куста́х"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"word": "deus ex máchina"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"word": "räddande ängel"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "contrived plot resolution",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "deus ex machina"
},
{
"code": "ar",
"lang": "Arabic",
"roman": "al-ḥall mina s-samāʔ",
"sense": "contrived solution to a problem",
"word": "الحَلّ مِنَ السَّمَاء"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "contrived solution to a problem",
"word": "ihmeratkaisu"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "contrived solution to a problem",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "deus ex machina"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "kyūba shinogi",
"sense": "contrived solution to a problem",
"word": "急場しのぎ"
},
{
"code": "mr",
"lang": "Marathi",
"roman": "ḍeus eksa mĕkinā",
"sense": "contrived solution to a problem",
"word": "डेउस एक्स मॅकिना"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "contrived solution to a problem",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "deus ex machina"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "sčastlívaja razvjázka",
"sense": "contrived solution to a problem",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "счастли́вая развя́зка"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"deus ex machina"
],
"word": "deus ex machina"
}
Download raw JSONL data for deus ex machina meaning in English (11.0kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.