The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Contrivance \Con*triv"ance\, n.
   1. The act or faculty of contriving, inventing, devising, or
      planning.
      [1913 Webster]

            The machine which we are inspecting demonstrates, by
            its construction, contrivance and design.
            Contrivance must have had a contriver. --Paley.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. The thing contrived, invented, or planned; disposition of
      parts or causes by design; a scheme; plan; artifice;
      arrangement.
      [1913 Webster]

            Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to
            provide for human wants.              --Burke.

   Syn: Device; plan; scheme; invention; machine; project;
        design; artifice; shift. See Device.
        [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

contrivance
    n 1: a device or control that is very useful for a particular
         job [syn: appliance, contraption, contrivance,
         convenience, gadget, gizmo, gismo, widget]
    2: the faculty of contriving; inventive skill; "his skillful
       contrivance of answers to every problem"
    3: an elaborate or deceitful scheme contrived to deceive or
       evade; "his testimony was just a contrivance to throw us off
       the track" [syn: contrivance, stratagem, dodge]
    4: an artificial or unnatural or obviously contrived arrangement
       of details or parts etc.; "the plot contained too many
       improbable contrivances to be believable"
    5: any improvised arrangement for temporary use [syn: lash-up,
       contrivance]
    6: the act of devising something [syn: devisal, contrivance]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

244 Moby Thesaurus words for "contrivance":
   Charlie McCarthy, action, ad hoc measure, agent, anagnorisis,
   ancilla, angle, answer, apparatus, appliance, approach,
   architectonics, architecture, argument, arrangement, art,
   artful dodge, artifice, atmosphere, attack, authorship, background,
   beginning, blind, blueprint, blueprinting, brainchild, cabal,
   calculation, catastrophe, characterization, charting, chicanery,
   coinage, collusion, color, complication, complicity, complot,
   conception, concoction, confederacy, connivance, conspiracy,
   continuity, contraption, contriving, countermove, counterplot,
   coup, course of action, covin, craft, creation, creative effort,
   creature, cute trick, deceit, deep-laid plot, demarche, denouement,
   design, development, device, devising, disposition, dodge, dummy,
   dupe, effort, engineering, enterprise, envisagement, episode,
   expedient, fable, fabrication, fakement, falling action, feint,
   fetch, figuring, finagling, finesse, foresight, forethought,
   frame-up, gadget, gambit, game, generation, gimcrack, gimmick,
   gizmo, go-between, graphing, grift, ground plan, guidelines,
   hand tool, handmaid, handmaiden, hatching, idea, implement,
   improvisation, incident, instrument, intention, interagent,
   intermediary, intermediate, intermedium, intrigue, invention,
   jugglery, jury-rig, jury-rigged expedient, knavery, last expedient,
   last resort, last shift, layout, lever, line, lineup, little game,
   local color, long-range plan, machination, makeshift, making do,
   maneuver, maneuvering, manipulation, mapping, master plan, means,
   measure, mechanical device, mechanism, mediator, medium, method,
   methodology, midwife, minion, mintage, mood, motif, move, movement,
   mythos, operations research, organ, organization, origination,
   pawn, peripeteia, pis aller, plan, planning, planning function,
   plaything, plot, plotting, ploy, power tool, prearrangement,
   precision tool, procedure, program, program of action, puppet,
   racket, rationalization, recognition, red herring, resort,
   resource, rigging, rising action, ruse, schedule, schema,
   schematism, schematization, scheme, scheme of arrangement,
   schemery, scheming, secondary plot, servant, setup, shake-up,
   shift, slant, slave, sleight, solution, speed tool, step, stooge,
   stopgap, story, stratagem, strategic plan, strategy, stroke,
   stroke of policy, structure, subject, subplot, subterfuge, switch,
   system, systematization, tactic, tactical plan, tactics,
   temporary expedient, the big picture, the picture,
   thematic development, theme, tone, tool, topic, toy, trick,
   trickery, trump, twist, underplot, utensil, vehicle, way,
   web of intrigue, wile, wily device, wire-pulling,
   working hypothesis, working plan, working proposition