artifice
/ˈɑː(ɹ)tɪfɪs/
artifice noun: crafty deception.
Noun
artifice (countable and uncountable, plural artifices)
- Crafty deception.
- The notion that consequence can be as easily managed as PR is the ultimate artifice and the ultimate delusion.2021 November 21, Charles Hugh Smith, When Everything Is Artifice and PR, Collapse Beckons
- A trick played out as an ingenious, but artful, ruse.
- 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.2021 September 22, Caroline Siede, “Dear Evan Hansen is a misfire on just about every level”, in AV Club
- A strategic maneuver that uses some clever means to avoid detection or capture.
- A tactical move to gain advantage.
- Skill; cleverness.
- Something made with technical skill; a contrivance.
Verb
artifice (third-person singular simple present artifices, present participle artificing, simple past and past participle artificed)
- To construct by means of skill or specialised art
- 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.1867, Egbert Pomroy Watson, The Modern Practice of American Machinists and Engineers […]
- Some of the greatest artists of their day either furnished designs or with their own hands artificed ornaments for domestic use,1900, Country Life, volume 7, page 138
artifice meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
artifice in Hindi
- artifice, ruse
- फ़रेब fareb
artifice in Tamil
- உபாயம், தந்திரம், உத்தி, யுக்தி, சூழ்ச்சி, புரட்டு
artifice in Urdu
- فن, گھات, حرفت, تدبیر
artifice in Bengali
- an artifice, trick
- কায়দা kaẏoda
More languagesFewer languages
- artifice in Telugu
- యుక్తి yukti
- artifice in Malayalam
- കൗശലപ്പണി, സൂത്രപ്പണി, തന്ത്രം
- artifice in Kannada
- ಚಾಲಾಕು, ತಂತ್ರಗಾರಿಕೆ
- artifice in Sanskrit
- वर्पस् várpas
Examples of artifice in a sentence
- Artifices will not avail the sinner in the day of judgment.
- Here, the emphasis is somewhat deflatingly on the artifice in “Cymbeline.”
- When rustic rites become cosmopolitan fashions, the artifice is often more interesting than the original folkway.
Forms of artifice
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | artifices |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | artifices |
| present participle | artificing |
| past participle | artificed |
| past | artificed |
Origin of artifice
From Middle French artifice, from Latin artificium.
Questions about artifice
- What does artifice mean?
- Artifice means crafty deception.
- What is artifice in Hindi?
- Artifice in Hindi is फ़रेब (fareb). See Artifice meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is artifice?
- Artifice can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce artifice?
- Artifice is pronounced /ˈɑː(ɹ)tɪfɪs/.
- What is the plural of artifice?
- The plural of artifice is artifices.
Words near artifice in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: artifice (page history and authors); फ़रेब (Hindi) (page history and authors); artifice (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); artifice (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); কায়দা (Bengali) (page history and authors); యుక్తి (Telugu) (page history and authors); artifice (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); artifice (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); वर्पस् (Sanskrit) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-artifice.ogg.
Cite this entry: “artifice.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/artifice. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.