artifice
/ˈɑː(ɹ)tɪfɪs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.58 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A strategic maneuver that uses some clever means to avoid detection or capture.
Countable; Uncountable
verb
To construct by means of skill or specialised art
Example Sentences
- "The notion that consequence can be as easily managed as PR is the ultimate artifice and the ultimate delusion."
- "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."
- "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."
- "Some of the greatest artists of their day either furnished designs or with their own hands artificed ornaments for domestic use,"
- "Splints and slings, already described, are easily artificed out of small saplings or from stiff bark."
Etymology
From Middle French artifice, from Latin artificium.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *h₂er-, artifice, *dʰeh₁-