VocabauraVOCABAURA

devise

verb · noun

Simple meaning

Give by will.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

dihvyz

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

dɪˈvaɪz

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. Give by will, especially real property

  2. transitive

    To use one's intellect to plan or design (something).

  3. transitive

    To leave (property) in a will.

noun

  1. A will disposing of real property

  2. The act of leaving real property in a will.

  3. Design, devising.

  4. law

    A gift of real property by will

  5. The real property left in such a will.

  6. Such a will, or a clause in such a will.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Academic

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Give by will, especially real property

Used this way, devise is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

Share your sentence

Write your own example sentence using “devise”. We review each one before it appears.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

devise waysdevise meansdevise methods

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • devisingnounInflected form

    The act that results in something coming to be.

Ask Vocabaura

Understand the word your way.

What Does It Mean Here?

Words can change meaning depending on context.

Use it yourself

Knowing “devise” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.

Know the meaning? Practice using it in a real situation, free, no credits.

Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.