Artifice

Word ARTIFICE
Character 8
Hyphenation ar ti fice
Pronunciations /ˈɑː(ɹ)tɪfɪs/

Definitions and meanings of "Artifice"

What do we mean by artifice?

Deception or trickery. noun

Something contrived or made up to achieve an end, especially by deceiving; a stratagem or ruse: synonym: wile. noun

Cleverness or ingenuity in making or doing something; art or skill. noun

An artistic device or convention. noun

. The art of making. noun

An ingenious or skilfully contrived work. noun

Skill in designing and employing expedients; artful contrivance; address; trickery. noun

A crafty device; an ingenious expedient; trick; shift; piece of finesse. noun

Synonyms Artifice, Manæuver, Stratagem, Wile, Trick, Ruse, Finesse, device, contrivance, cunning, craft, deception, cheat, fraud, guile, imposition, dodge, subterfuge, double-dealing. These words generally imply a careful endeavor to compass an end by deceiving others, not necessarily, however, with evil intent. They all imply management and address. An artifice is prepared with art or care; it is craftily devised. Manæuver suggests something more elaborate or intricate, a carefully contrived movement or course of action for a definite purpose; it is the quiet or secret marshaling of one's intellectual or other resources to carry a point. Stratagem is, like manæuver, a figurative term drawn from war; it is upon a larger scale what wile is upon a smaller, a device to deceive one who is the object of an imagined warfare, so that we may catch him at a disadvantage and discomfit him, or, more generally, a carefully prepared plan to carry one's point with another—to capture it or him, so to speak. A wile may be peculiarly coaxing or insinuating. Trick is the lowest and most dishonorable of these words; it may be a low or underhand act, in violation of honor or propriety, for the purpose of cheating, or something as bad. A ruse is a deception of some elaborateness, intended to cover one's intentions, help one to escape from a predicament, etc.; it is a plausible way of bringing about what we desire to happen, without apparent interference on our part. Finesse is subtlety in action; it is a more delicate sort of artifice. See artful, evasion, and fraud. noun

A handicraft; a trade; art of making. noun

Workmanship; a skillfully contrived work. noun

Artful or skillful contrivance. noun

Crafty device; an artful, ingenious, or elaborate trick. Now the usual meaning. noun

A crafty but underhanded deception. noun

A trick played out as an ingenious, but artful, ruse. noun

A strategic maneuver that uses some clever means to avoid detection or capture. noun

A tactical move to gain advantage. noun

A deceptive maneuver (especially to avoid capture) noun

A crafty but underhanded deception.

A trick played out as an ingenious, but artful, ruse.

A strategic maneuver that uses some clever means to avoid detection or capture.

A tactical move to gain advantage.

Something made with technical skill; a contrivance.

The most essential skill Urban Dictionary

Synonyms and Antonyms for Artifice

The word "artifice" in example sentences

But thinking through the poem's artifice is only one way into it, and on the poem's own terms it is not necessarily a better path than the one pointed to by the rhetorical question of the ❋ Unknown (2008)

Maybe so, but I think there's also a sense in which readers of fantastic fiction become attuned to these irrationalities, such that when realist writers do introduce them as purportedly naturalistic events, the artifice is obvious. ❋ Hal Duncan (2006)

This declaration of artifice is to the point because it both invests in the power of representation and recognizes its limitations. ❋ Unknown (2006)

Spark, I think, would reply that the novelist can do nothing else, because she simply has this power over her characters; not to admit it, to hide that control in fathoms of agreeable artifice, is to act in bad faith. ❋ Unknown (2004)

We think of the fecundity in artifice with which those of better brain,. no matter how they were handicapped by law, would still outwit those of poorer brain, showing an intensified bitterness born of the class struggle in whose ruthlessness they had been bidden to believe. ❋ Unknown (1936)

This, my Lord, you are permitted to do; they have no means of resistance; but think not to impose on me by a sophistical assertion of right, or to gloss the villainy of your conduct with the colours of justice; the artifice is beneath the desperate force of your character, and is not sufficiently specious to deceive the discernment of virtue. ❋ Unknown (1789)

Last Sunday on This Week With David Brinkley, Cokie Roberts dismissed Clinton's conduct as an "artifice" -- an exercise in campaign strategy. ❋ Unknown (2010)

They assumed that we must live by artifice, and they entitled artifice 'Science.'" ❋ Giberne Sieveking (N/A)

And so he did, with sly artifice, which is worse in such hands than a crowbar. ❋ Unknown (2004)

The artifice was a new one, and showed that the fugitives were assisted by men with intellect far in advance of their own. ❋ Gordon Browne (1867)

I suppose most people, looking at such a plate, fancy it is produced by some simple mechanical artifice, which is to drawing only what printing is to writing. ❋ John Ruskin (1859)

The color both highlights a kind of artifice and reveals undercurrents of terror within the hearts of even Hitler's most faithful soldiers. ❋ Mira Schor (2010)

In digging through the strata of accusations focused on artifice -- dubious motivation, false presentation, ostentatiousness -- it should have become clear that the underlying suspicion being voiced is that the writer's "artifice" is covering a shallow concern with status, that the primary purpose of the work is to establish the writer's superiority. ❋ Hal Duncan (2008)

This view makes precisely the distinction between "artifice" and "art" that Ulin thinks distinguishes Faulkner's lesser from his greater work. ❋ Unknown (2008)

As I've insisted before, a novel is a construction of words, "artifice" by nature. ❋ Unknown (2008)

"The most essential skill in [political theater] and the consumer culture is [artifice]." - [Chris Hedges] ❋ Skippythe1st (2018)

Cross Reference for Artifice

What does artifice mean?

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