this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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There is no such thing as a Stupid Question!

Don't be embarrassed of your curiosity; everyone has questions that they may feel uncomfortable asking certain people, so this place gives you a nice area not to be judged about asking it. Everyone here is willing to help.


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[–] SincerityIsCool@lemmy.ca 12 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

Just going by memory of usage pattern:

Gadget: a small (at least usually small enough to be carried around and utilized by a single person) piece of technology for a specific, often niche use. Eg, "go go gadget shark-repelant spray gun!"

Contraption: a device, often jury rigged or prototyped, built to serve some particular purpose. Eg, "I built this here contraption to dig us a way out of here"

Doohickey: A word used refer to a contraption or other piece of technology that the speaker does not understand, or does not know the purpose of, especially to emphasise that lack of understanding. Eg, "they're gonna 'beam' us out of here with that doohickey."

Not sure about gizmos.

Edit: examples

[–] bizarroland@fedia.io 4 points 6 days ago

I think gadgets and gizmos are in the same general category, but gadgets tend to be more mechanically operated and gizmos tend to be more electrically operated.

Like a wrist-mounted crossbow would be a gadget, whereas a wrist-mounted laser would be a gizmo.

[–] asg101@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] SincerityIsCool@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 days ago

It was a fun question! Thanks for asking it

[–] swordgeek@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Eg, β€œgo go gadget shark-repelant spray gun!”

That's a serious violation of content crossover!

It's supposed to be the shark-repellent Bat spray.

[–] SincerityIsCool@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 days ago

🀫 Batman and Inspector Gadget have been canoodling

[–] swordgeek@lemmy.ca 9 points 5 days ago

Why are we not talking about thingamabobs here?

Also, what about a gewgaw (or is it a geegaw)?

[–] OmgItBurns@discuss.online 5 points 5 days ago

Honestly, most people will use those words interchangeably. So if you're talking to someone, just understand that, to that person, they likely mean the same thing.

[–] 2fm@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

I may be wrong but I think each of their descriptions scale differently depending on how much skookum they have.

[–] jjagaimo@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago

Any one of those phrases could be used to describe The Device

[–] kamenlady@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Gizmo is no hydrohomie, that's all i know.

A Gizmo is also a Gadget, but with a forgotten or unknown name.

[–] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

synΒ·oΒ·nym /ˈsinΙ™ΛŒnim/ noun noun: synonym; plural noun: synonyms

a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language, for example shut is a synonym of close.

[–] SincerityIsCool@lemmy.ca 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Synonyms aren't necessarily interchangeable. Asking about the distinctions is a good question.

[–] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 3 points 6 days ago (3 children)

and yet; sometimes they are 100% interchangeable and asking for distinctions is not a good question.

[–] asg101@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 days ago

And yet another yet, the comm description is: "There is no such thing as a Stupid Question!".

It's too bad there isn't a community where you could ask a question that you realize is probably stupid, but still want an answer for

[–] SincerityIsCool@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

That is a very sad way to think of language.