How to Use deus ex machina in a Sentence

deus ex machina

noun
  • Many hoped vaccines would put a deus ex machina-style end to the virus.
    — Jessica Gelt, Los Angeles Times, 18 Dec. 2021
  • But that idea vaporizes in the wake of a deus ex machina cheat.
    — Ann Hornaday, chicagotribune.com, 13 June 2019
  • But the deus ex machina of an overwhelming public health crisis has changed things.
    — Steven Levy, Wired, 20 Mar. 2020
  • There’s a lot of deus ex machina resolution of tight binds, things that happen off-screen and are waved away.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 9 Jan. 2026
  • There isn’t any deus ex machina lurking that would force Biden out, short of a serious health issue.
    — Jim Geraghty, Washington Post, 10 July 2024
  • Enter the deus ex machina of washing machines, one that does all that, and behind an ultra-sleek façade, to boot.
    — Olivia Martin, Town & Country, 15 Oct. 2018
  • So when Al attacks and smothers her, there’s no magical plot device or deus ex machina to save her.
    — Emma Dibdin, Harper's BAZAAR, 28 Dec. 2020
  • The deus ex machina has been a narrative device since Ancient Greece.
    — Time, 12 July 2023
  • What if, instead of climate change or nuclear winter, we were delivered that deus ex machina?
    — New York Times, 20 June 2018
  • Whether democracy can be saved by vigilantes, a deus ex machina mogul and the Rock is a question for the finale.
    — James Poniewozik, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2022
  • Everything seems like it’s settled, the characters’ fates are sealed, and suddenly a deus ex machina shows up to save the day.
    — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 21 Apr. 2023
  • The impact of Luke Skywalker appearing for a deus ex machina hit his whole household hard.
    — WIRED, 10 Oct. 2022
  • While a pat deus ex machina nearly dims the denouement, Belgravia is worthwhile for the performances alone.
    — Robyn Bahr, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Apr. 2020
  • The ending depends on a perverse kind of deus ex machina that some readers will consider too melodramatic.
    — Ron Charles, Washington Post, 7 June 2022
  • These sections are just so dutiful and familiar, with all their slo-mo fighting and deus ex machina solutions and utter lack of stakes.
    — Richard Lawson, HWD, 25 Oct. 2017
  • Some two-and-a-half years into this routine, Democrats are still falling into the trap, waiting for a deus ex machina that never arrives.
    — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 23 Sep. 2019
  • The whole radiation trick from last week also feels like a classic case of deus ex machina, introduced way too late to work narratively.
    — Ben Rosenstock, Vulture, 20 May 2026
  • In Lowery’s movie, as in the poem, however, magic does not function as a deus ex machina to tie up loose ends but as a way to talk about control.
    — Jordan Michael Smith, The New Republic, 12 Aug. 2021
  • There would also be a deus ex machina stroke of luck as the truck inadvertently bricks up and foils the antagonist’s plans in the penultimate episode.
    — Vulture Editors, Vulture, 12 June 2024
  • Some who walk among us might have wished for more of a big reveal, a deus ex machina to propel the plot of humanity forward, whatever the implications of that might be.
    — Editorial Board, Star Tribune, 2 July 2021
  • That obituary probably would have been published in 2015 if not for a deus ex machina named Vladimir Putin.
    — Robert F. Worth, The Atlantic, 6 Feb. 2026
  • Potential deus ex machinas include the Oceanside community, where Aaron stayed behind a few episodes back to try to win recruits.
    — Steve Johnson, chicagotribune.com, 26 Mar. 2018
  • The result is like the deus ex machina moment in an ancient Greek play, when a hopeless situation is resolved by the sudden appearance of a god on a crane.
    — New York Times, 27 Feb. 2022
  • The 2020 Dodge Charger Hellcat Widebody their new deus ex machina.
    — Scott Oldham, Car and Driver, 22 Jan. 2020
  • And in the end, when a villain gets the drop on our hero, Tacoma is saved by the sudden appearance of his mentor in an amateurish, deus ex machina conclusion.
    — Bruce Desilva, Dallas News, 30 July 2019
  • But the biopic, which changes the race and backstory of Peg Entwistle, an actor who leapt to her death off the Hollywood sign, gets saved from censorship by a deus ex machina.
    — Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 10 May 2020
  • As for the ending, Beethoven’s original deus ex machina — virtue rewarded, evil punished — was referred to as a relic of a better time, but not something possible in the real world.
    — Washington Post, 14 June 2019
  • But then, like a deus ex machina, the Google Lunar X Prize announced a set of interim goals—and rewards—that would give the flagging companies a carrot.
    — Sarah Scoles, WIRED, 14 May 2018
  • In a conventional telling of the European air war, the P-51 simply materializes, a deus ex machina.
    — David A. Price, WSJ, 23 Nov. 2018
  • The fate of these bills in the Senate, where 10 Republican votes are needed to defy a filibuster, barring a deus ex machina on that subject, is worrisome.
    — Editorial Board, Star Tribune, 19 Mar. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'deus ex machina.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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