1
as in cunning
skill in achieving one's ends through indirect, subtle, or underhanded means
with well-practiced artfulness, he convinced his mother he was sick enough to stay home from school but not sick enough for a visit to the doctor's office
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
2
as in skill
subtle or imaginative ability in inventing, devising, or executing something
building a ship model requires a painstaking artfulness I don't have
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of artfulness
There is a real seriousness to the score — the scheming bad-guy music has the artfulness of Prokofiev, and even the sneaking-around cues have musical integrity and structure.
—
Tim Greiving, Vulture, 3 Sep. 2025
Tim Greiving, Vulture, 3 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for artfulness
Noun
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Coaching successfully in such conditions requires a mixture of humility and self-confidence, as well as a certain cunning.—
Dermot Corrigan,
New York Times,
31 Oct. 2025
-
The story follows Toto, an almost completely blind cat with incredible ninja skills, who must use her courage and cunning to stop a deadly King Cobra that has escaped onto the streets of London, alongside her cheeky brother Silver.—
Naman Ramachandran,
Variety,
21 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Meanwhile, Helm practises Helm’s skills.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Nov. 2025
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The challenge, as always in football, is for those players to showcase their skill within the context of a high tempo.—
Michael Cox,
New York Times,
2 Nov. 2025
Noun
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People would devote entire dissertations to developing techniques for distinguishing handwritten digits or for recognizing faces in images; then a deep-learning algorithm would digest the underlying data, discover the subtleties of the problem, and make those projects seem obsolete.—
James Somers,
New Yorker,
3 Nov. 2025
-
The subtlety, Johnson says, is where the secret to his impression lies.—
Steven Zeitchik,
HollywoodReporter,
30 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Ay, the superb slyness of that last response!—
Anthony Lane,
New Yorker,
8 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Artfulness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/artfulness. Accessed 7 Nov. 2025.
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