contrivance vs ploy

contrivance

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

  • Something overly artful or artificial. 

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

ploy

noun
  • A tactic, strategy, or scheme. 

  • Sport; frolic. 

verb
  • To form a column from a line of troops on some designated subdivision. 

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