Word.ws English Dictionary

art of the possible

art of the possible noun: pragmatism, realism.

Noun

the art of the possible

  1. pragmatism, realism

Origin of art of the possible

Calque of German Kunst des Möglichen, coined by Otto von Bismarck. The possible is here a singular nominalised adjective, meaning “that which is possible”.

Questions about art of the possible

What does art of the possible mean?
Art of the possible means pragmatism, realism.
What part of speech is art of the possible?
Art of the possible is a noun.

Words near art of the possible in the dictionary

  1. art name
  2. art names
  3. art nouveau
  4. art object
  5. art objects
  6. art of the possible
  7. art of war
  8. art paper
  9. art papers
  10. art piece
  11. art pieces

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: art of the possible (page history and authors). 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.

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