Webster's English Dictionary

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mechanism

mech.a.nism \'mek-*-.niz-*m\ n 1a: a piece of machinery  1b: a process or 
   technique for achieving a result  2: mechanical operation or action  3: a 
   doctrine that holds natural processes (as of life) to be mechanically  
   determined and capable of complete explanation by the laws of physics and 
   chemistry 4: the fundamental physical or chemical processes involved in or 
   responsibl e for an action, reaction, or other natural phenomenon