artifice
Clever strategic trickery
Artifice is clever skill or cunning, especially in crafting something deceptive.
The word carries a sense of ingenuity applied to trickery or illusion: The spy's artifice fooled everyone.
It can also mean the thing constructed through such skill—a clever device or stratagem: The plot was held together by obvious artifices.
In older usage, artifice simply meant skillful craftsmanship without negative connotation, but modern use typically implies manipulation or insincerity.
Deliberate deception or fraud
- guileSly, strategic dishonesty
- subterfugeDeliberate deception to conceal
- deceitDeliberate misleading of others
- ruseDeliberate act of deception
duplicity · chicanery · cunning · slyness · pretense · feint · stratagem · machination
Calculated strategy, often secretive
- plotStoryline or land parcel
- ployCalculated deceptive tactic
- maneuverDeliberate tactical movement
- gambitRisky opening for advantage
intrigue · conspiracy · machination · stratagem · cabal · collusion · orchestration · engineering
Atmospheric optical deception
- phantasmIllusory supernatural appearance
- hallucinationPerception without external cause
- simulacrumImitative stand-in for reality
- apparitionVisible supernatural manifestation
fantasy · delusion · figment · chimera · façade · veneer · semblance · false front
New device or method
- clevernessMental quickness and skill
- creativityCapacity for original thought
- resourcefulnessAbility to solve problems creatively
- inventivenessCapacity for original creation
imagination · innovation · contrivance · device · design · stratagem · originality · wit
trickery
Deliberate deception or fraud
- guileSly, strategic dishonesty
- subterfugeDeliberate deception to conceal
- deceitDeliberate misleading of others
ruse · duplicity · chicanery · cunning · slyness · pretense · feint · stratagem · machination · wile
scheme
Calculated strategy, often secretive
gambit · intrigue · conspiracy · machination · stratagem · cabal · collusion · orchestration · engineering · calculation
mirage
Atmospheric optical deception
- phantasmIllusory supernatural appearance
- hallucinationPerception without external cause
- simulacrumImitative stand-in for reality
apparition · fantasy · delusion · figment · chimera · façade · veneer · semblance · false front · smoke and mirrors
invention
New device or method
- clevernessMental quickness and skill
- creativityCapacity for original thought
- resourcefulnessAbility to solve problems creatively
inventiveness · imagination · innovation · contrivance · device · design · stratagem · originality · wit · brilliance
craft
Skilled manual art
- skillAcquired ability through practice
- handiworkHandmade work product
- workmanshipSkill in creating objects
artisanry · technique · mastery · expertise · finesse · dexterity · artistry · crafting · fabrication · construction
artificesincerity
Honest, unfeigned genuineness
honesty · candor · genuineness · authenticity · forthrightness
artificeineptitude
Lack of ability
clumsiness · maladroitness · incompetence · ineptness · awkwardness
artificenaturalness
Unaffected, uncontrived quality
simplicity · plainness · artlessness · unaffectedness · spontaneity
- artificial intelligenceMachines mimicking human thought
- artificial legSynthetic limb replacement
- artificial lightNon-solar brightness source
- artificial sweetenerManufactured sugar replacement
- artificial skinManufactured substitute for epidermis
- artificial satellitesManufactured objects in orbit