artifice

[ ahr-tuh-fis ]

noun

1. a clever trick or stratagem; a cunning, crafty device or expedient; wile.

   Synonyms: subterfuge

2. trickery; guile; craftiness.

   Synonyms: duplicity, art, deceit, deception

3. cunning; ingenuity; inventiveness:

   a drawing-room comedy crafted with artifice and elegance.

4. a skillful or artful contrivance or expedient.

artifice

/ ˈɑːtɪfɪs /

noun

1. a clever expedient; ingenious stratagem
2. crafty or subtle deception
3. skill; cleverness
4. a skilfully contrived device
5. obsolete.
   craftsmanship

Word History and Origins

Origin of artifice¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of artifice¹

C16: from Old French, from Latin artificium skill, from artifex one possessed of a specific skill, from ars skill + -fex, from facere to make

Synonym Study

See trick. See cunning.

Example Sentences

She seemed determined to strip her fame of all artifice while still claiming its pleasures.

From Los Angeles Times

That fascination with the artifice — short-term intimacy for a cost — paired with his appreciation for the legitimate work being done spurred Baker to make a series of films that, in different ways, have examined the industry.

From Los Angeles Times

In 1966, the Met premiered Samuel Barber's "Antony and Cleopatra," a Shakespeare-inspired spectacle that was panned by the New York Times as an "artifice with a great flourish masquerading as art," producing music that "abounded in declamation and pageantry" but failed to explore the subject — love between a man and woman — and couldn't be saved by Leontyne Price singing at the peak of her powers.

From Salon

Such simplicity in design, along with a winking sense of artifice, is partly what helped turn Kent’s bogeyman into an unlikely gay icon.

From Los Angeles Times

But as is often the case from “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the episode’s sharp-edged satire is laced with deep sentimentality, rendering Casa Bonita almost mythical, a place so ludicrous in its artifice that it becomes a cultural touchstone.

From Salon

Related Words

• contrivance
• gimmick