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artful

adjective

Synonyms and Antonyms of artful

1 clever at attaining one's ends by indirect and often deceptive means

  • the artful lawyer got the witness to admit he had been lying
Synonyms of artful

beguiling, cagey (also cagy), crafty, cunning, cute, designing, devious, dodgy [chiefly British], foxy, guileful, scheming, shrewd, slick, sly, subtle, tricky, wily
Words Related to artful

astute, facile, glib, sharp

crooked, deceitful, deceptive, dishonest, fraudulent, insinuating, knavish, Machiavellian, oblique, serpentine, shady, shifty, slippery, sneaky, treacherous, underhand, underhanded, unscrupulous

backhanded, double-dealing, hypocritical, insincere, left-handed, mealy, mealymouthed, smooth-tongued, two-faced

circuitous, circular, roundabout

clandestine, concealed, covert, furtive, hugger-mugger, secret, stealthy, surreptitious, undercover

calculating, plotting
Near Antonyms of artful

obvious, open, patent, plain, public, unconcealed

aboveboard, candid, direct, forthright, frank, honest, natural, outspoken, plainspoken, real, simple, sincere, straightforward, unaffected, unpretending, unpretentious, unvarnished

childlike, impressionable, simpleminded, unsophisticated, unworldly

unforced, unstudied

trustful, trusting
Antonyms of artful

artless, guileless, ingenuous, innocent, undesigning

2 showing a noteworthy use of the imagination and creativity especially in inventing

  • that kitchen gadget is an artful tool for extracting cherry pits
Synonyms of artful

clever, creative, imaginative, ingenious, innovative, inventive
Words Related to artful

adventurous, fresh, groundbreaking, novel, original, visionary

cleverish, gadgety, gimmicky

convenient, handy, neat, nifty, practical, useful

complex, sophisticated

adroit, deft, dexterous (also dextrous), expert, handsome, tricky

brainy, intelligent, sharp, smart
Near Antonyms of artful

dull, pedantic, pedestrian, stodgy

assembly-line, canned, cookie-cutter, derivative, hackneyed, unoriginal

impractical, useless
Antonyms of artful

uncreative, unimaginative

3 accomplished with trained ability

  • that was an artful way to handle a very delicate situation
Synonyms of artful

adroit, bravura, deft, delicate, dexterous (also dextrous), expert, masterful, masterly, practiced (also practised), skillful, virtuoso, workmanlike
Words Related to artful

facile, smooth

artistic, creative, fancy, ingenious, neat

adept, clever, cunning

able, adequate, capable, competent
Near Antonyms of artful

awkward, clumsy, crude, klutzy

ineffective, ineffectual

incompetent, inept
Antonyms of artful

amateur, amateurish, artless, rude, unprofessional, unskillful

Synonym Discussion of artful

sly, cunning, crafty, wily, tricky, foxy, artful, slick mean attaining or seeking to attain one's ends by guileful or devious means. sly implies furtiveness, lack of candor, and skill in concealing one's aims and methods.
    • a sly corporate raider
cunning suggests the inventive use of sometimes limited intelligence in overreaching or circumventing.
    • the cunning fox avoided the trap
crafty implies cleverness and subtlety of method.
    • a crafty lefthander
wily implies skill and deception in maneuvering.
    • the wily fugitive escaped the posse
tricky is more likely to suggest shiftiness and unreliability than skill in deception and maneuvering.
    • a tricky political operative
foxy implies a shrewd and wary craftiness usually involving devious dealing.
    • a foxy publicity man planting stories
artful implies indirectness in dealing and often connotes sophistication or cleverness.
    • elicited the information by artful questioning
slick emphasizes smoothness and guile.
    • slick operators selling time-sharing

Learn More about artful

  1. Dictionary: Definition of artful Spanish Central: Translation of artful Nglish: Translation of artful for Spanish speakers

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