Make Your Point: MACHINATIONS

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pronounce MACHINATIONS:

MACK in AY shunz

connect this word to others:

Like you might guess, the word machinations is closely related to machine, with both tracing back to the Latin machina, which could mean "a machine or an engine" or "a trick."

See if you can recall another relative of machina:

Literally "a god from a machine," a d__s e_ machina (3 words) is a person or thing that suddenly shows up at just the right time and completely fixes all the problems, as if being lowered by machinery from the heavens to the stage.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

The word "machinations" traces back through Old French to the Latin machinari, meaning "to plot, or to scheme," and further back to machina, "a trick, or a machine or engine."

Since the 1400s, we've used "machination" in English to mean "a trick, a plot, a scheme." These days we usually use it in the plural: machinations are sneaky, complicated, possibly evil plans.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Noun, the countable kind: "She kept her machinations guarded;" "The media obsess over his political machinations."

Other forms:

There's a verb, but it's very rare: "machinate." It's the intransitive kind, as in "She machinated all night" and "He never stops politically machinating."

how to use it:

Pick the common, emphatic, cartoonish word "machinations" when you want to paint someone as a sneaky villain.

Your tone might be quite serious if you're talking about the machinations of, say, a dictator, a greedy corporation, or a manipulative team of lawyers.

But your tone can be lighthearted, too. You might talk about the machinations of cartoon villains, the parental machinations you had to devise to get your kid to eat vegetables, or the mathematical machinations you had to dream up to balance your budget.

examples:

"As Mr. Hoffenberg's business grew, his financial machinations became increasingly complex."
— Ed Shanahan, New York Times, 26 August 2022

"There's a lot going on in Destroyer. Characters leap between decades, the twisty-turvy machinations of any good detective story are in play, and Bell is also trying to navigate her contentious relationship with her daughter."
— Bryan Bishop, The Verge, 22 September 2018

has this page helped you understand "machinations"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "machinations" without saying "tricks" or "schemes."

try it out:

A writer for the Verge complained that the show Into the Badlands was "mired in drearily convoluted plot machinations."

Try explaining what that means: why can plot machinations drag down a show?

And, could you make the same complaint about some other show, movie, or book?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is "The Tip of the Tongue!"

You know how sometimes you'll be reaching for a perfect word, and it's right there at the tip of your tongue, where you can almost taste it? Somehow that word is caught in the liminal space between your memory and your mouth. This month, let's play with that experience, and practice resolving it to our satisfaction.

I'll give you a short quote from Chris Palmer's heartfelt and eye-opening new book, Achieving a Good Death: A Practical Guide to the End of Life, along with a blank where Chris has deployed a truly perfect word. To help bring that word to the tip of your tongue, I'll describe it both physically and semantically.

Try this one today:

"Happiness in older age typically far exceeds happiness at age forty. Aging results in better emotional regulation, more compassion and _____, more profound gratitude, and more engagement with the present."

The word is 5 syllables long, and it has a QU near the beginning.

The word means "calm within the mind."

To reveal the right word, scroll to the bottom of the issue.

review this word:

1. A near opposite of MACHINATIONS could be

A. DIRECTNESS.
B. AUTOMATION.
C. HANDMADE GIFTS.

2. You're most likely to read about _____ machinations.

A. "swift," "clever," or "humorous"
B. "petty," "political," or "fiendish"
C. "sewing," "laundry," or "desalinization"

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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