Apparatus

Quick meaning: Apparatus is a noun meaning The entirety of means whereby a specific production is made existent or task accomplished.

Meaning

The entirety of means whereby a specific production is made existent or task accomplished.

More Meanings

1. A complex machine or instrument.
2. (collective) An assortment of tools and instruments.
3. A bureaucratic organization, especially one influenced by political patronage.
4. (firefighting) A vehicle used for emergency response.
5. (gymnastics) Any of the equipment on which the gymnasts perform their movements.
6. (rhythmic gymnastics) Any of the objects that the gymnasts wield while performing and used as part of the performance itself.
7. (video games) A complex, highly modified weapon (typically not a firearm); a weaponized “Rube Goldberg machine.”

Example Sentences

An apparatus for exploring the atmosphere of a planet such as Venus, at a specific altitude, was patented this week for a French agency, the Office Nationale d'Etudes et de Recherche Aerospatiales.

It describes a “coordinated effort by the CCP’s propaganda apparatus … to discredit the BBC, distract international attention and recapture control of the narrative,” mostly outside Chinese borders.

Among the many good points Thomas Piketty makes in Capital in the Twenty First Century – his world-changing but surprisingly mild book – is that extreme inequality can be sustained politically only through an “apparatus of justification”.

“I have met my young photographer,” said De Stancy, cheerily. “What a small world it is, as every busybody truly observes! I am wishing he could take some views for us as we go on; but you have no apparatus with you, I suppose, Mr. Dare?”

Word Forms

• apparatuses
• apparatusses
• apparati

Synonyms for apparatus

Depending on context, synonyms include dynamic, mechanism, setup, device, instrument, machinery.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include setup, machinery, device, contraption, mechanism, machine.

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