artifice

English

Etymology

From Middle French artifice, from Latin artificium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑː(ɹ)tɪfɪs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

artifice (countable and uncountable, plural artifices)

1. A crafty but underhanded deception.
   • 2021 November 21, Charles Hugh Smith, When Everything Is Artifice and PR, Collapse Beckons‎:

     The notion that consequence can be as easily managed as PR is the ultimate artifice and the ultimate delusion.

2. A trick played out as an ingenious, but artful, ruse.
   • 2021 September 22, Caroline Siede, “Dear Evan Hansen is a misfire on just about every level”, in AV Club‎:

     The heightened worlds of darkly comedic satire and soapy high-school romance make it easy enough to roll with unrealistic casting choices—and that goes for stage musicals, too, where some level of artifice is built into the format.

3. A strategic maneuver that uses some clever means to avoid detection or capture.
4. A tactical move to gain advantage.
5. (archaic) Something made with technical skill; a contrivance.

Translations

Verb

artifice (third-person singular simple present artifices, present participle artificing, simple past and past participle artificed)

1. To construct by means of skill or specialised art
   • 1867, Egbert Pomroy Watson, The Modern Practice of American Machinists and Engineers ‎:

     The Creator has so cunningly endowed our bodies that there is no labor to be done, no skill in artificing or fashioning the metals, that is beyond our reach.

   • 1900, Country Life‎, volume 7, page 138:

     Some of the greatest artists of their day either furnished designs or with their own hands artificed ornaments for domestic use,

   • 1922, Appalachian Mountain Club, The A.M.C. White Mountain Guide: A Guide to Trails in the Mountains‎:

     Splints and slings, already described, are easily artificed out of small saplings or from stiff bark.

Related terms

• artificial

Further reading

• “artifice”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “artifice”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• actifier

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin artificium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aʁ.ti.fis/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

artifice m (plural artifices)

1. artifice, trick, ploy
2. (literary) device

Derived terms

• artificiel
• feu d’artifice
• sans artifice

Further reading

• “artifice”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Latin

Noun

artifice

1. ablative singular of artifex