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Synonym Chooser

How is the word artless different from other adjectives like it?

Some common synonyms of artless are ingenuous, naive, natural, and unsophisticated. While all these words mean "free from pretension or calculation," artless suggests a naturalness resulting from unawareness of the effect one is producing on others.

artless charm

When is it sensible to use ingenuous instead of artless?

While the synonyms ingenuous and artless are close in meaning, ingenuous implies inability to disguise or conceal one's feelings or intentions.

the ingenuous enthusiasm of children

When would naive be a good substitute for artless?

Although the words naive and artless have much in common, naive suggests lack of worldly wisdom often connoting credulousness and unchecked innocence.

politically naive

Where would natural be a reasonable alternative to artless?

While in some cases nearly identical to artless, natural implies lacking artificiality and self-consciousness and having a spontaneousness suggesting the natural rather than the man-made world.

her unaffected, natural manner

When might unsophisticated be a better fit than artless?

The synonyms unsophisticated and artless are sometimes interchangeable, but unsophisticated implies a lack of experience and training necessary for social ease and adroitness.

unsophisticated adolescents

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of artless All that’s there is an artless effort to provoke outrage — Tony Hinchcliffe with the world’s strongest Boston accent. Joe Berkowitz, Vulture, 10 Nov. 2024 The effort of analyzing this video, a piece of artless misinformation, was beneath Abu Hamdan, who has dedicated himself to unveiling the violence of the world through the medium of sound. Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 15 July 2024 The untenable toxicity of this artless warfare has led some researchers to rethink the ancient script—and flip it: know yourself, know your enemy. Beth Mole, Ars Technica, 15 July 2024 Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo are Patricia and Michel, the gamine and the criminal, simultaneously artless and deliberate. Ew Staff, EW.com, 7 May 2024 See All Example Sentences for artless
Recent Examples of Synonyms for artless
Adjective
  • Yahoo Newscontinued that when prey struck the web perpendicularly, the waves produced were unaffected by the stabilimenta.
    Maria Mocerino, Interesting Engineering, 2 Nov. 2025
  • There’s also Alani (True Whitaker), an unaffected nepo baby who just wants everyone to get along, and Charlie (Jordan Firstman), an aspiring designer who is carving his own path after deciding the traditional routes weren’t working for him.
    Katie Campione, Deadline, 2 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • For starters, even at 4 mm by 4 mm, the Utah array would be too big and clumsy a hunk of hardware for Science to implant in the eye or Synchron to thread through a vein.
    Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 6 Nov. 2025
  • What resulted is one of the most comic, counterproductive, and clumsy episodes in the long history of British efforts to deal with Ireland.
    The New Yorker, New Yorker, 29 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Town & Country takes its characters and their struggles at face value and, despite some gentle needling, celebrates their genuine camaraderie and familial commitment.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 5 Nov. 2025
  • According to the filmmakers, the character’s journey toward genuine courage forms the emotional core of the story.
    Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 4 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • Combined with not intervening too often, this will minimize the number of rude responses.
    Judith Martin, Mercury News, 29 Oct. 2025
  • Basil, of course, is far from perfect, a rude, neurotic, accident-prone manager who insults guests, hides his gambling winnings from his wife and organizes an elaborate impersonation of her when his surprise anniversary party backfires.
    Rhett Bartlett, HollywoodReporter, 28 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • His memoir is a patchy affair, to be honest, which omits entire swaths of his achievement, yet its wayward momentum exerts a certain charm, as if Hopkins were only just in control of his reminiscences.
    Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2025
  • Walks that resulted in us having the deepest, most honest and even the funniest conversations of our lives together.
    Louis Casiano , Janelle Ash, FOXNews.com, 3 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • Big Oil leaders Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Shell continue to hike their crude oil production volumes from West Texas’s Permian Basin to the Gulf of Mexico to deepwater Guyana despite concerns of a rising global oil glut as OPEC nations keep exporting more barrels each month.
    Jordan Blum, Fortune, 31 Oct. 2025
  • Burke gave the only 9 on a panel full of 10s, prompting the crude call out.
    Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 30 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • According to Bruce Blair, a former Air Force launch officer and nuclear policy expert, between 1962 and the mid-1970s the most powerful digits on the globe were simple – eight zeros.
    Charlotte Reck, CNN Money, 9 Nov. 2025
  • That something as simple as a COVID vaccine might improve survival in cancer patients receiving standard immunotherapy has taken oncologists by surprise — in a good way.
    Lisa Jarvis, Twin Cities, 8 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • Other government notices mentioned the size and rough location of the construction.
    Tamara Qiblawi, CNN Money, 7 Nov. 2025
  • Yams tend to be white fleshed with a rough, brown exterior.
    Paul Cappiello, Louisville Courier Journal, 7 Nov. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Artless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/artless. Accessed 10 Nov. 2025.

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