contrivance vs ruse

contrivance

noun
  • Something overly artful or artificial. 

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

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

ruse

noun
  • Cunning, guile, trickery. 

  • An action intended to deceive; a trick. 

verb
  • To deceive or trick using a ruse. 

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