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The Difference Between Art and Artifice
Do great actors display artifice or art? Sometimes a bit of both. Artifice stresses creative skill or intelligence, but it also implies a sense of falseness and trickery. Art generally rises above such falseness, suggesting instead an unanalyzable creative force. Actors may rely on some of each, but the personae they display in their roles are usually artificial creations. Therein lies a lexical connection between art and artifice. Artifice comes from artificium, Latin for "artistry, craftmanship, craft, craftiness, and cunning." (That root also gave us the English word artificial.) Artificium, in turn, developed from ars, the Latin root underlying the word art (and related terms such as artist and artisan).
Examples of artifice in a Sentence
Zachary Fine, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026
His whimsical and precisely-staged tales play on the artifice of cinema as much as on the heightened emotions of their characters.
—David Morgan, CBS News, 29 Jan. 2026
Ultimately, this play – more artifice than heart – conveys little about loneliness, middle-aged sexuality, or even mental health.
—The Week Uk, TheWeek, 16 Jan. 2026
For the prison scenes, Chambliss went in the opposite direction of that shimmering artifice.
—Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 16 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for artifice
Cite this Entry
“Artifice.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/artifice. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
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