artless
Americanadjective
-
free from deceit, cunning, or craftiness; ingenuous.
an artless child.
- Synonyms:
- sincere, candid, unaffected, plain, frank, open, guileless, unsophisticated, naive
- Antonyms:
- cunning
-
not artificial; natural; simple; uncontrived.
artless beauty; artless charm.
-
lacking art, knowledge, or skill.
-
poorly made; inartistic; clumsy; crude.
an artless translation.
adjective
-
free from deceit, guile, or artfulness; ingenuous
an artless remark
-
natural, without artifice; unpretentious
artless elegance
-
without art or skill
Other Word Forms
- artlessly adverb
- artlessness noun
Etymology
Origin of artless
Explanation
Yes, artless could mean lacking in art, but more often it means lacking in superficiality or deceit. An artless person could never make a living as a con artist. Originally meaning "unskillful" or "uncultured," artless evolved into meaning not skilled or cultured in the art of deceit. If you are artless, you are natural and uncontrived. Young people, animals, the socially inept — these can all be artless in the way they express themselves. They seem to mean exactly what they say.
Vocabulary lists containing artless
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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Awkward Moments
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I, Robot
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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.
But Bruce Springsteen and the raw, stripped-down recordings of his 1982 “Nebraska” album seem earnestly in opposition to such artless gamesmanship.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 20, 2025
By doing that, its critics are no better than the artless, ahistorical fascists they purport to abhor.
From Salon • May 6, 2025
Not too crusty, not too knobby, so artless as to be almost invisible.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 9, 2022
Roger Goodell has a last chance to rescue his reputation as an NFL commissioner, and maybe even become an important one, despite years of artless dodging on issues from domestic violence to Deflategate.
From Washington Post • Oct. 18, 2021
He found him shooting jump shots from the top of the key, hard, artless shots with almost no arch.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
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.
