artifice
Americannoun
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a clever trick or stratagem; a cunning, crafty device or expedient; wile.
- Synonyms:
- subterfuge
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trickery; guile; craftiness.
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cunning; ingenuity; inventiveness.
a drawing-room comedy crafted with artifice and elegance.
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a skillful or artful contrivance or expedient.
noun
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a clever expedient; ingenious stratagem
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crafty or subtle deception
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skill; cleverness
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a skilfully contrived device
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obsolete craftsmanship
Related Words
Etymology
Origin of artifice
1525–35; < Anglo-French < Latin artificium craftsmanship, art, craftiness, equivalent to arti-, combining form of ars art 1 + -fic-, combining form of facere to do 1, make + -ium + -ium
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Some crafty artifice and a heap of negative space aren’t enough to fill the void left by a complete lack of narrative sense.
From Salon • Mar. 15, 2026
Social media has become increasingly artificial; there is so much artifice in our own profiles and the sites themselves.
From Slate • Dec. 14, 2025
The film builds to Jay, stripped of much of his artifice and trappings, finally receiving his award, which includes a tribute reel.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 14, 2025
The painted mountainscapes and Kate Hawley’s costuming are pure artifice in a production in which every mad-scientist detail seems otherwise calibrated.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 6, 2025
My eyes burn, and it’s not artifice, unlike the wincing.
From "Divergent" by Veronica Roth
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
