Word.ws English Dictionary

arty

/ˈɑː(ɹ)ti/US/ˈɑɹti/

arty adjective: inclined towards the arts.

Adjective

arty (comparative artier, superlative artiest)

  1. Inclined towards the arts.
    • But the film is depressingly thin on the women; often it seems more interested in arranging them in arty tableaux than investigating the way that isolation has shaped their personalities and how they see the world.2021 July 21, Cath Clarke, “Luz: The Flower of Evil review – arty Colombian horror shot through a trippy filter”, in The Guardian
  2. (derogatory, sometimes) Pretending to artistic worth; high-flown.
    • “Half of these Cate Blanchett movies – they’re all just like these arty things. I’m not saying they’re bad movies, but I don’t think most of them have a shelf life,” he said.2015 August 31, Quentin Tarantino, quotee, “Quentin Tarantino says Cate Blanchett's 'arty' films don't have 'shelf life'”, in The Guardian

Noun

arty (plural arties)

  1. (slang) Artillery.
  2. (slang) An artillery crew member.

Proper noun capitalized: Arty

Arty

  1. A diminutive of the male given name Arthur, from the Celtic languages.
  2. A diminutive of the female given name Artemis, from Greek language.

Forms of arty

Adjective
comparativeartier
superlativeartiest
alternative formartsie
alternative formartsy
Noun
pluralarties

Origin of arty

From art + -y.

Clipping of artillery, perhaps incorporating the suffix -y forming diminutive nouns.

From Art + -y.

Words formed from arty

Words that rhyme with arty

Questions about arty

What does arty mean?
Arty means inclined towards the arts.
What part of speech is arty?
Arty can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce arty?
Arty is pronounced /ˈɑː(ɹ)ti/.

Words near arty in the dictionary

  1. artworkers
  2. artworking
  3. artworks
  4. artworld
  5. artworlds
  6. arty
  7. arty-crafty
  8. arty-farties
  9. arty-farty
  10. artyfarties
  11. artyfarty

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: arty (page history and authors); Arty (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-arty.wav.

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