art

/ɑːt//ɑɹt/

art noun: the conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colours, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the senses and emotions, usually specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium. Also the second-person singular simple present indicative of be.

Image: Hans Rottenhammer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

art (countable and uncountable, plural arts)

(uncountable) The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colours, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the senses and emotions, usually specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
- There is a debate as to whether graffiti is art or vandalism.
- B.W. Wooster: If you ask me, art is responsible for most of the trouble in the world.
  R. Jeeves: An interesting theory, sir. Would you care to expatiate upon it?
  B.W. Wooster: As a matter of fact, no, Jeeves. The thought just occurred to me, as thoughts do.
  R. Jeeves: Very good, sir.1992 May 3, “Comrade Bingo”, in Jeeves and Wooster, Series 3, Episode 6
(uncountable) The creative and emotional expression of mental imagery, such as visual, auditory, social, etc.
(countable) Skillful creative activity, usually with an aesthetic focus.
- She's mastered the art of programming.
(uncountable) The study and the product of these processes.
- He's at university to study art.
(uncountable) Aesthetic value.
- Her photographs are nice, but there's no art in them.
(uncountable) Artwork.
- Sotheby's regularly auctions art for millions.
- art collection
Synonyms:

craft
(countable) A field or category of art, such as painting, sculpture, music, ballet, or literature.
- I'm a great supporter of the arts.
(countable) (often in dichotomy with science) A subject understood best through intuition rather than methodology.
- Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is...2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
(countable) Skill that is attained by study, practice, or observation.
- A physician was immediately sent for; but on the first moment of beholding the corpse, he declared that Elvira's recovery was beyond the power of art.1796, Matthew Lewis, The Monk, Folio Society, published 1985, page 217
- The relation of science to art may be summed up in a brief expression: From Science comes Prevision: from Prevision comes Action.1855, Harriet Martineau's translation, The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte Vol. 1, Introduction, Ch. 2, page 21, from Auguste Comte, Cours de philosophie positive (1830–1842)
(dated, uncountable) Contrivance, scheming, manipulation.
- it was not art,
  Of wisdom and of justice when he spoke—
  When ’mid soft looks of pity, there would dart
  A glance as keen as is the lightning’s stroke
  When it doth rive the knots of some ancestral oak.1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC...
- [...] and Mrs. Earnshaw undertook to keep her sister-in-law in due restraint, when she returned home employing art, not force—with force she would have found it impossible.1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter VI, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume I, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC, page 112

Noun (2) capitalized: ART

ART (countable and uncountable, plural ARTs)

(abbreviation) Abbreviation of Achilles tendon reflex time.
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(abbreviation) Abbreviation of Active Release Technique.
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(abbreviation) Abbreviation of Algebraic Reconstruction Technique.
(abbreviation) Abbreviation of Alternative Risk Transfer.
(abbreviation) Abbreviation of acoustic resonance technology.
(abbreviation) Abbreviation of antiretroviral therapy.

Proper noun capitalized: Art

Art

A diminutive of the male given name Arthur, from the Celtic languages.

Also used as

art is also the second-person singular simple present indicative of be.

art meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

art in Hindi

skillful creative activity: कला kalā, आर्ट ārṭ
human effort: कला kalā, फ़न fan

art in Tamil

study: கலை kalai
conscious production or arrangement: கலை kalai
skillful creative activity: கலை kalai
aesthetic value: கலை kalai

art in Marathi

conscious production or arrangement: कला kalā
skillful creative activity: कला kalā
field or category of art: कला kalā

art in Urdu

skillful creative activity: فَن fan, صَنْعَت san'at, آرْٹ ārṭ
human effort: فَن fan
skill: صَنْعَت san'at

More languagesFewer languages

art in Bengali: শিল্পকলা śilpokola, কলা kola, শিল্প śilpo
art in Malayalam: കല kala
art in Kannada: ಕಲೆ kale
art in Punjabi: ਕਲਾ kalā
art in Sanskrit: कला kalā
art in Sinhala: කලාව kalāwa
art in Nepali: कला, कलामा
art in Pashto: هنر honar, صنعت san'át, آرت ārt, فن fan
art in Tagalog: sining
art in Arabic: فَنّ fann, فُنُون funūn, فن fann, صَنْعَة ṣanʕa
art in Malay: seni
art in Indonesian: seni
art in Persian: صَنْعَت san'at, هُنَر honar, فَنّ fann
art in Thai: ศิลปะ sǐn-lá-bpà
art in Vietnamese: nghệ thuật
art in Myanmar: အနုပညာ a.nu.pa.nya, အတတ်ပညာ a.tatpa.nya

Examples of art in a sentence

"I tell her what Donald Hall says: that the problem with workshops is that they trivialize art by minimizing the terror."2005 July, Lynn Freed, Harper's:
Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art.2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company...
Listening is a social art and we had best hang on to it.1983 December 3, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 20, page 21:

All 40 example sentences with art

Synonyms of art

craft

Antonyms

Forms of art

plural	arts
plural	ARTs

Plural of art: arts

Origin of art

From Middle English art, from Old French art, from Latin artem, accusative of ars (“art”). Partly displaced native Old English cræft, whence Modern English craft. See also archaic English list (“art, craft, cunning, skill”).

From Middle English art, from Old English eart, second-person singular present indicative of wesan. Further etymology uncertain, see are. Cognate with Faroese ert and Icelandic ert.

Clipping.

Words formed from art

Phrases with art

162 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with art

32 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about art

What does art mean?: Art means the conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colours, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the senses and emotions, usually specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
What is art in Hindi?: Art in Hindi is कला (kalā), आर्ट (ārṭ), फ़न (fan). See Art meaning in Hindi.
How do you use art in a sentence?: "I tell her what Donald Hall says: that the problem with workshops is that they trivialize art by minimizing the terror."
What part of speech is art?: Art can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce art?: Art is pronounced /ɑːt/ (UK).
What is the plural of art?: The plural of art is arts.

Words near art in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: art (page history and authors); ART (page history and authors); Art (page history and authors); art (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-art.ogg, en-us-art.ogg.

Cite this entry: “art.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/art. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.