deus ex machina

1. 1.

   any active agent who appears unexpectedly to solve an insoluble difficulty

   Broadercausal agent

Questions about deus ex machina

What does deus ex machina mean?

deus ex machina means "any active agent who appears unexpectedly to solve an insoluble difficulty".

Is deus ex machina a common word?

deus ex machina is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.