artifice

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See also: artífice

English

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Etymology

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From Middle French artifice, from Latin artificium.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈɑː(ɹ)tɪfɪs/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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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[1]:
      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[2]:
      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

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Verb

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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 [] [3]:
      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[4], 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[5]:
      Splints and slings, already described, are easily artificed out of small saplings or from stiff bark.
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Further reading

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Anagrams

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French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin artificium.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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artifice m (plural artifices)

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

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Latin

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Noun

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artifice

  1. ablative singular of artifex