Device vs. Machine — What's the Difference?

A piece of electronic equipment.

An apparatus using or applying mechanical power.

A strategy or scheme to achieve an end.

An electronic device used for a particular function.

A thing made or adapted for a particular purpose, especially a piece of mechanical or electronic equipment

A machine is any physical system with ordered structural and functional properties. It may represent human-made or naturally occurring device molecular machine that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action.

A plan, method, or trick with a particular aim

A device consisting of fixed and moving parts that redirects mechanical energy to accomplish a particular task or set of tasks.

A drawing or design

See simple machine.

An object designed and manufactured to perform one or more functions.

See compound machine.

A literary contrivance, such as parallelism or personification, used to achieve a particular effect.

A system or device for doing work, as an automobile or jackhammer, together with its power source and auxiliary equipment.

A decorative design, figure, or pattern, as one used in embroidery.

A system or device, such as a computer, that performs or assists in the performance of a human task

A graphic symbol or motto, especially in heraldry.

An intricate natural system or organism, such as the human body.

A plan or scheme for accomplishing something

A person who acts in a rigid, mechanical, or unconscious manner.

Any piece of equipment made for a particular purpose, especially a mechanical or electrical one.

An organized group of people whose members are or appear to be under the control of one or more leaders

(computer hardware) A peripheral device; an item of hardware.

A device used to produce a stage effect, especially a mechanical means of lowering an actor onto the stage.

A project or scheme, often designed to deceive; a stratagem; an artifice.

A literary device used to produce an effect, especially the introduction of a supernatural being to resolve a plot.

(Ireland) An improvised explosive device, home-made bomb

An answering machine

(rhetoric) A technique that an author or speaker uses to evoke an emotional response in the audience; a rhetorical device.

Of, relating to, or felt to resemble a machine

(heraldry) A motto, emblem, or other mark used to distinguish the bearer from others. A device differs from a badge or cognizance primarily as it is a personal distinction, and not a badge borne by members of the same house successively.

To cut, shape, or finish by machine.

(archaic) Power of devising; invention; contrivance.

To be cut, shaped, or finished by machine

(legal) An image used in whole or in part as a trademark or service mark.

A device that directs and controls energy, often in the form of movement or electricity, to produce a certain effect.

(printing) An image or logo denoting official or proprietary authority or provenience.

(dated) A vehicle operated mechanically, such as an automobile or an airplane.

(obsolete) A spectacle or show.

An answering machine or, by extension, voice mail.

(obsolete) Opinion; decision.

(computing) A computer.

That which is devised, or formed by design; a contrivance; an invention; a project; a scheme; often, a scheme to deceive; a stratagem; an artifice.

(figuratively) A person or organisation that seemingly acts like a machine, being particularly efficient, single-minded, or unemotional.

Power of devising; invention; contrivance.

Especially, the group that controls a political or similar organization; a combination of persons acting together for a common purpose, with the agencies which they use.

An emblematic design, generally consisting of one or more figures with a motto, used apart from heraldic bearings to denote the historical situation, the ambition, or the desire of the person adopting it. See Cognizance.

(poetry) Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit.

Anything fancifully conceived.

The system of special interest groups that supports a political party, especially in urban areas.

A spectacle or show.

Penis.

Opinion; decision.

(historical) A contrivance in the Ancient Greek theatre for indicating a change of scene, by means of which a god might cross the stage or deliver a divine message; the deus ex machina.

Any artifactual object designed to perform an action or process, with or without an operator in attendance.

(obsolete) A bathing machine.

An instrumentality invented for a particular purpose;

To make by machinery.

Something in an artistic work designed to achieve a particular effect

To shape or finish by machinery; (usually, more specifically) to shape subtractively by metal-cutting with machine-controlled toolpaths.

Any clever (deceptive) maneuver;

In general, any combination of bodies so connected that their relative motions are constrained, and by means of which force and motion may be transmitted and modified, as a screw and its nut, or a lever arranged to turn about a fulcrum or a pulley about its pivot, etc.; especially, a construction, more or less complex, consisting of a combination of moving parts, or simple mechanical elements, as wheels, levers, cams, etc., with their supports and connecting framework, calculated to constitute a prime mover, or to receive force and motion from a prime mover or from another machine, and transmit, modify, and apply them to the production of some desired mechanical effect or work, as weaving by a loom, or the excitation of electricity by an electrical machine.

Any ornamental pattern or design (as in embroidery)

Any mechanical contrivance, as the wooden horse with which the Greeks entered Troy; a coach; a bicycle.

An emblematic design (especially in heraldry);

A person who acts mechanically or at the will of another.

An object or tool made for a specific use.

A combination of persons acting together for a common purpose, with the agencies which they use; as, the social machine.

A symbol or emblem.

A political organization arranged and controlled by one or more leaders for selfish, private or partisan ends; the Tammany machine.

A component in a larger machine.

Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit.

To subject to the action of machinery; to make, cut, shape, or modify with a machine; to effect by aid of machinery; to print with a printing machine.

Any mechanical or electrical device that transmits or modifies energy to perform or assist in the performance of human tasks

An intricate organization that accomplishes its goals efficiently;

An efficient person;

4-wheeled motor vehicle; usually propelled by an internal combustion engine;

A group that controls the activities of a political party;

A device for overcoming resistance at one point by applying force at some other point

Turn, shape, mold, or otherwise finish by machinery

Make by machinery;

An organized group of people for a specific purpose.

An entity that operates in a structured and routine manner.

A vehicle, especially one with an engine.

It can be considered both. It's a device for computing, but also a complex machine with many parts.

Sometimes, especially if referring to it in a general or non-specific manner.

Not necessarily. While some devices can be machines, not all are due to their simplicity.

No, machines can be powered by various means including manual effort, wind, or water.

No, many devices, like a thermometer or a flashlight, have no moving parts.