… revising the state's constitution through a series of legal stratagems and artifices …—W. Haywood Burns
b
: false or insincere behavior
social artifice
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The Difference Between Art and Artifice
Do great actors display artifice or art? Sometimes a bit of both. Artifice stresses creative skill or intelligence, but it also implies a sense of falseness and trickery. Art generally rises above such falseness, suggesting instead an unanalyzable creative force. Actors may rely on some of each, but the personae they display in their roles are usually artificial creations. Therein lies a lexical connection between art and artifice. Artifice comes from artificium, Latin for "artistry, craftmanship, craft, craftiness, and cunning." (That root also gave us the English word artificial.) Artificium, in turn, developed from ars, the Latin root underlying the word art (and related terms such as artist and artisan).
He spoke without artifice or pretense.
The whole story was just an artifice to win our sympathy.
Recent Examples on the WebAs the actress is dying of lymphoma, the disease would kill her at twenty-nine, she is artfully arranged and fully made up; yet her composure undercuts any sense of artifice.—Benjamin Moser, The New Yorker, 8 Oct. 2024 There are manic car chases scored to techno-pop songs; gun fu acrobatics that burst with goofy artifice.—Vikram Murthi, Vulture, 4 Mar. 2024 The actor has excelled at embracing female artifice—and then demolishing it from the inside out.—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 13 Sep. 2024 There’s also a pleasing lack of artifice here, both in the acting and Jung Bum-shik’s direction, that makes this one of the most watchable found footage installments in recent memory.—Declan Gallagher, EW.com, 13 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for artifice
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'artifice.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from Anglo-French & Middle French, "trade, craft, craftsmanship, contrivance," borrowed from Latin artificium "artistry, craftsmanship, craft, craftiness, cunning," from artific-, artifex "practitioner of an art, specialist, craftsman, creator" (from art-, ars "acquired skill, craftsmanship" + -fic-, -fex, agentive derivative of facere "to make, bring about, do") + -ium, denominal or deverbal suffix of function or state — more at art entry 1, fact
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