Did you know?
The Difference Between Art and Artifice
Do great actors display artifice or art? Sometimes a bit of both. Artifice stresses creative skill or intelligence, but it also implies a sense of falseness and trickery. Art generally rises above such falseness, suggesting instead an unanalyzable creative force. Actors may rely on some of each, but the personae they display in their roles are usually artificial creations. Therein lies a lexical connection between art and artifice. Artifice derives from artificium, Latin for "artifice." That root also gave English artificial. Artificium, in turn, developed from ars, the Latin root underlying the word art (and related terms such as artist and artisan).
Synonyms
Examples of artifice in a Sentence
Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 20 Mar. 2024
One of the more obvious examples of partisan artifice was in the northwest corner of the state, in the 73rd Assembly District, where the GOP had strategically added Republican areas and subtracted Democratic ones in a plan enacted in 2022.
—Megan O’Matz, ProPublica, 16 Feb. 2024
The central mystery of Kate’s disappearance aside, this has been the most fascinating thing about the entire debacle: watching the picture-perfect artifice constructed by the Royal Family crumble to the ground.
—Ej Dickson, Rolling Stone, 14 Mar. 2024
Vaughn wants audiences to suspect the artifice and get a laugh out of the clunky clichés being served up and subverted, while innocuously planting seeds that will pay off later in the movie.
—Peter Debruge, Variety, 31 Jan. 2024
Blurring the line between reality and artifice Gomez grew up in Chicago and moved to Los Angeles in 2006 to study at theCalifornia Institute of the Arts.
—Victoria Woodcock, CNN, 26 Feb. 2024
What interests you about this layering of artifice, these stories upon stories upon stories?
—Jennifer Wilson, The New Yorker, 3 Mar. 2024
Lloyd positions his leading lady in a folding chair on a revolving stage stripped of any sets, backdrops, or hints of artifice.
—Christian Holub, EW.com, 14 Dec. 2023
Such physical rituals—incantations manifesting thought, body, and tool—bring forth the artifice of intellect.
—TIME, 8 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'artifice.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near artifice
Cite this Entry
“Artifice.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/artifice. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
artifice
noun
Legal Definition
artifice
noun
Share