… 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 WebAnd in the Brechtian sense, there was a kind of artifice to the piece.—Nick Vivarelli, Variety, 5 Sep. 2024 Pellegrino, along with the 17 others, were indicted on nine felony counts of conspiracy, forgery and fraudulent schemes and artifices.—Jeremy Duda, Axios, 7 Aug. 2024 The artifice of their exertion gives rise to a constant ambient loopiness that’s the sane version of insanity.—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 16 Aug. 2024 And so the artifice of their experiment gives way to the most genuine of truths: Love doesn’t exist in defiance of time — love is the defiance of time.—Indiewire Staff, IndieWire, 12 Aug. 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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