artifice.

1. Clever contrivance used to mislead people or conceal one's true intentions.

2. Skillful construction or technique through which an artistic effect is achieved.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• political artifice
• without artifice
• an elaborate artifice

On the page

Every hesitation in his apology had been rehearsed, an artifice designed to look like shame.

She answered without artifice, and the unexpected candor unsettled him.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary. Forms: Uncountable for ingenuity; countable for a particular device or trick, plural artifices. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.