The action or process of contriving; the quality of being contrived or artificially constructed.
From contrive + -ancy (the quality or state of), an alternative nominalization to -ance. The suffix -ancy emphasizes the ongoing state rather than the result.
Contrivancy sounds more suspicious than contrivance—it suggests not just the device but the act of scheming, the whole process of making something seem more complicated than it is.
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