disapproval If you say that something someone says or does is contrived, you think it is false and deliberate, rather than natural and not planned. There was nothing contrived or calculated about what he said It mustn't sound like a contrived compliment. = artificial spontaneous
disapproval If you say that the plot of a play, film, or novel is contrived, you mean that it is unlikely and unconvincing. The plot seems contrived. seeming false and not natural
artificially formal; "that artificial humility that her husband hated"; "contrived coyness"; "a stilted letter of acknowledgment"; "when people try to correct their speech they develop a stilted pronunciation"