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View synonyms for artifice

artifice

[ ahr-tuh-fis ]

noun

  1. a clever trick or stratagem; a cunning, crafty device or expedient; wile.

    Synonyms: subterfuge

  2. trickery; guile; craftiness.

    Synonyms: duplicity, art, deceit, deception

  3. cunning; ingenuity; inventiveness:

    a drawing-room comedy crafted with artifice and elegance.

  4. a skillful or artful contrivance or expedient.


artifice

/ ˈɑːtɪfɪs /

noun

  1. a clever expedient; ingenious stratagem
  2. crafty or subtle deception
  3. skill; cleverness
  4. a skilfully contrived device
  5. obsolete.
    craftsmanship
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of artifice1

1525–35; < Anglo-French < Latin artificium craftsmanship, art, craftiness, equivalent to arti-, combining form of ars art 1 + -fic-, combining form of facere to do 1, make + -ium + -ium
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Word History and Origins

Origin of artifice1

C16: from Old French, from Latin artificium skill, from artifex one possessed of a specific skill, from ars skill + -fex, from facere to make
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Synonym Study

See trick. See cunning.
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Example Sentences

Limbro was excellent, and I kind of loved how the show made no attempt to justify its obvious artifice.

From Time

Her large-scale photographs spike tired conventions of documentary portraiture with freewheeling artifice and invention.

Like all of the show’s greatest set pieces, it was a stunning fusion of high artifice and deeply felt emotion.

From Time

It might seem out of place on our busy modern calendars — a day shorn, like Rogers’ Hallmark tree, of artifice and pomp.

From Time

Liza’s authentic warmth is such a refreshing antidote to Halston’s chilly artifice that a full-on dual portrait might have worked better to deepen both characters.

From Time

There is usually something transparent about the artifice required by famous artists trying to remain current.

Bratis, who trained in Athens, creates pieces of “femininity and pure elegance without artifice.”

Point of view is inconsistent and Berg employs enough obvious filmic artifice to keep reminding us we are watching dramatization.

“Faye always tried to advance his own idea of the institution by judicial artifice,” Lecourt told Le Monde.

The collection is by turn bizarre, hilarious, unpredictable, all of it without a single note of artifice.

He used every artifice to prevent a collision between the French and Neapolitan troops.

This way of owning Guilt in a wrong Place, is a common Artifice to hide it in a right one.

Artifice is always strictly subordinated, and the poet seems to sing spontaneously.

Then you would recommend rank rebellion, either by force or artifice, according as circumstances might require?

He listened, fascinated, incredulous, asking himself if human artifice could invent such a history.

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