artifice
[ahr-tuh-fis]
- a clever trick or stratagem; a cunning, crafty device or expedient; wile.
- trickery; guile; craftiness.
- cunning; ingenuity; inventiveness: a drawing-room comedy crafted with artifice and elegance.
- a skillful or artful contrivance or expedient.
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Origin of artifice
Synonyms
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Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
gimmickcontrivanceduplicityinventivenessdodgemaneuverplayscamsavvystratagemmachinationploysubterfugeruserackettacticexpedientdevicewilegambitExamples from the Web for artifice
Contemporary Examples
There is usually something transparent about the artifice required by famous artists trying to remain current.
The collection is by turn bizarre, hilarious, unpredictable, all of it without a single note of artifice.
Where Raphael constructed ideal women and made them seem normal and necessary, Dürer constructs ideal works of art and artifice.
He is unfailingly polite and contrite, still slightly awkward with the artifice of campaigning after all these years.
Of course, these photos also emphasize the artifice that lies behind documentation.
Historical Examples
The artifice was too palpable to escape Rotha's observation.
The Shadow of a CrimeHall Caine
They held the secret of artifice in metals and gems; they were architects and sculptors.
Italy, the Magic LandLilian Whiting
Jeff had been summoned, and Esther met him with no pretence at an artifice of coolness.
The PrisonerAlice Brown
There was not an artifice I did not practise to cure myself of this baleful infatuation.
Gerald FitzgeraldCharles James Lever
The latter then resorted to artifice, seeing that force was unavailing.
artifice
- a clever expedient; ingenious stratagem
- crafty or subtle deception
- skill; cleverness
- a skilfully contrived device
- obsolete craftsmanship
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Word Origin
C16: from Old French, from Latin artificium skill, from artifex one possessed of a specific skill, from ars skill + -fex, from facere to make
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for artifice
n.
1530s, "workmanship, the making of anything by craft or skill," from Middle French artifice "skill, cunning" (14c.), from Latin artificium "a profession, trade, employment, craft; making by art," from artifex (genitive artificis) "craftsman, artist," from ars "art" (see art (n.)) + facere "do" (see factitious). Meaning "device, trick" (the usual modern sense) is from 1650s.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper