… 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.
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But also having the artifice of the soundstage was really important.—Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 2 Oct. 2025 The underground pop of the 2010s used to get so excited about being online, using shrinky-dink artifice to delight in poking fun at a culture that could feel shallow and strange but also organic and endlessly renewable.—Anna Gaca, Pitchfork, 1 Oct. 2025 Their lack of artifice allows some of the cast’s other teen/20-something performers to go broad and big, especially Isolde Ardies, whose terrifying intensity as a sad-eyed rule-follower named Stacey is a real highlight.—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 24 Sep. 2025 Two years of relentless violence have stripped the artifice from the Israeli political system.—Jack Sheehan
september 4, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for artifice
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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