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
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.
And yes, the current versions of this AI are dubious, unreliable and artless.
From Salon ● May 24, 2025
His earnest prose, alternately lyrical and artless but always compulsively informative, conveyed a near-missionary zeal for travel and elevated “Frommer’s” from the how-to genre to the kind of book that could change a person’s worldview.
From New York Times ● Nov. 18, 2024
The artless wall over the past year, it seems in hindsight, was a hint that “Guernica” might return.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 5, 2022
“Potato Dreams of America” is a well-meaning mishmash of a movie memoir whose sometimes questionable narrative and visual choices one suspects — or at least hopes — are more intentional than artless.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 13, 2022
He realized how little they had talked, how their relationship had been like an artless flow with little input from them, or at least from him.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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.
