artist
Americannoun
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artists
plural
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a person who produces works in any of the arts that are primarily subject to aesthetic criteria.
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a person who practices one of the fine arts, especially a painter or sculptor.
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a person whose trade or profession requires a knowledge of design, drawing, painting, etc..
a commercial artist.
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a person who works in one of the performing arts, as an actor, musician, or singer; a public performer.
a mime artist; an artist of the dance.
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a person whose work exhibits exceptional skill.
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a person who is expert at trickery or deceit.
He's an artist with cards.
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Obsolete. an artisan.
noun
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a person who practises or is skilled in an art, esp painting, drawing, or sculpture
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a person who displays in his work qualities required in art, such as sensibility and imagination
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a person whose profession requires artistic expertise, esp a designer
a commercial artist
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a person skilled in some task or occupation
an artist at bricklaying
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obsolete an artisan
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slang a person devoted to or proficient in something
a booze artist
a con artist
Synonym Usage
Artist, artisan, artiste are persons having superior skill or ability, or who are capable of producing superior work. An artist is a person engaged in some type of fine art. An artisan is engaged in a craft or applied art. An artiste is usually a skilled public performer.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of artist
First recorded in 1575–85; from Middle French artiste, from Medieval Latin artista “master of arts”; equivalent to art 1 + -ist
Explanation
An artist is someone whose life's work — or passionate hobby — focuses on some creative enterprise. If you love to paint portraits of your dog, you are an artist. People who make films, write short stories, or build beautiful dollhouses are all artists. Doing anything that involves creativity and imagination, especially if it yields some finished project, is being an artist. Sometimes people use the word for someone who's great at what she does, or who uses extra flair or originality: "That barista is a total artist — look, she made my latte foam look like a hedgehog!" The Latin root is ars, or "art."
Vocabulary lists containing artist
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.
See Examples For:
"I feel incredibly lucky to get to play these shows here in New York, and this building means a lot to me," said the artist.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
“There was absolutely no makeup used on Pride & Prejudice,” the movie’s hair and makeup artist, Fae Hammond, told Stylist in 2014.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
She is a mother, a daughter, a community center worker, an artist — and a woman with a complicated romantic and family history.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
A chorus of testimony from people who were once closest to Musk builds a profile of a megalomaniacal con artist.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026
Just days before Maggie left for her tutor’s home, Elisha arranged for an artist to paint her portrait.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
All artists are looking for outside validation, Epstein said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
The two characters - long-standing icons of the games - are martial artists who trained under the same teacher before their relationship went sour.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
Bruch’s setting, like some moments in Brian Friel’s plays, reminds us that no artists can make us nostalgic for places we’ve never been or for people we’ve never known like the Celts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Our staffer @vanessafranko does pen and ink drawings to compensate when artists don’t let us take their photo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
It looked like Dr. Zinchenko had instructed her video artists to run a Balloon Fiesta simulation for the final day of the Library Olympics.
From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by Chris Grabenstein
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
