contrivance vs gadget

contrivance

noun
  • A (mechanical) device to perform a certain task. 

  • Something overly artful or artificial. 

  • A means, such as an elaborate plan or strategy, to accomplish a certain objective. 

gadget

noun
  • Any device or machine, especially one whose name cannot be recalled. Often either clever or complicated. 

  • Any consumer electronics product. 

  • A sequence of machine code instructions crafted as part of an exploit that attempts to divert execution to a memory location chosen by the attacker. 

  • A technique for converting a part of one problem to an equivalent part of another problem. Used in constructing reductions. 

How often have the words contrivance and gadget occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )