DictionaryAI

art

ART/ɑɹt/AHT/ɑːt/

Pluralarts (some meanings)

7 meanings of art

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  1. 1
    creative worksnoununcountable
    Works produced through creative skill, such as paintings, sculptures, or drawings.

    The gallery displays art by local painters and sculptors.

    Collectors paid millions for the art sold at the auction.

    UsageFor one item say a work of art or a piece of art; artwork is also common.

    Similarartwork, works, pieces

  2. 2
    creative activitynouncountable
    The creation of works that express ideas or feelings or have beauty, such as painting, sculpture, music, dance or literature, or any one field of such work, including its practice and study.

    Ballet is a demanding art that combines movement and storytelling.

    She has studied several arts, from sculpture to poetry.

    UsageThe arts groups painting, music, dance and literature, as in funding for the arts; an art is one field.

  3. 3
    nouncountable
    A skill gained through study, practice or experience, especially one that depends on judgment and feel rather than fixed rules, often contrasted with science.

    The art of persuasion can be sharpened through years of practice.

    Diplomacy is an art mastered only through long observation and study.

    UsageCommon in the art of + noun or -ing: the art of persuasion, the art of listening.

    Similarskill, craft, knack, technique

    Note

    An older and wider sense of human skill, which is why the physician in Matthew Lewis's The Monk (1796) can declare a recovery beyond the power of art. In the plural it shades toward methods and tricks. The Celebrity (1897), by the American novelist Winston Churchill, has a character persuade three ladies to pay a visit by arts unknown.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • Art historically had a wider meaning encompassing human skill. en.wikipedia.org
    • Matthew Lewis wrote The Monk, first published in 1796. penguinrandomhouse.com
    • A physician in The Monk declares a recovery beyond the power of art; the wording and attribution are accurate. gutenberg.org
    • The Winston Churchill named here was an American novelist. en.wikipedia.org
    • The Celebrity describes a character inducing three ladies to visit, using the exact phrase 'by arts unknown'. gutenberg.org
  4. 4
    noun
    In the plural, the branches of learning that study human culture, including languages, literature and history, considered apart from the sciences.

    She earned a Bachelor of Arts in comparative literature before going to law school.

    Budget cuts hit the arts faculty hardest, and the history and language departments both lost staff.

    Similarhumanities

    Oppositesciences

    Note

    Only the plural carries this meaning, and it often stands before another noun: an arts degree, an arts faculty, a Bachelor of Arts. The same plural also names fields such as painting and music, so context decides which is meant. Set against the sciences, as in a faculty of arts and sciences, it means the humanities.

Less common meanings

  1. 5
    creative qualitynoununcountable
    The aesthetic value or beauty found in a creative work.

    The plot is thin, but there's real art in how the film uses light and color.

    There is genuine art in the careful balance of the composition.

    UsageOften used in there is (real/little/no) art in something.

    Similarartistry, beauty, craftsmanship, style, aesthetics

  2. 6
    you areverbarchaic
    Second-person singular simple present indicative of be.

    Thou art the fairest in all the land.

    Thou art late, my lord, and the gates are shut.

    UsageGoes with thou: thou art; modern English says you are.

    Note

    A different word from the noun that happens to share its spelling. It comes from Old English eart, the thou-form of the verb meaning "to be," and its deeper origin is uncertain, with one proposal tracing it to a Germanic form meaning roughly "thou becamest." Today it survives in deliberate archaism.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The verb art has a different origin from the noun art, which came through French from Latin. sr.wiktionary.org
    • The verb comes from Old English eart, the second-person singular present indicative of wesan, meaning to be. sr.wiktionary.org
  3. 7
    schemingnoundateduncountable
    Cunning contrivance and scheming used to manipulate others.

    She saw through the art with which he flattered the old man.

    it was not art, Of wisdom and of justice when he spoke— When ’mid soft looks of pity, there would dart A glance as keen as is the lightning’s stroke When it doth rive the knots of some ancestral oak.
    1817, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam.”

    Similarcunning, guile, artifice, craft, trickery

    Oppositehonesty, sincerity, candor, artlessness

    Note

    The older, darker side of skill: cleverness used on people rather than materials. It is uncountable and often framed by contrast. Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1847) has a character "employing art, not force," and Shelley's The Revolt of Islam (1818) insists that when an old man spoke "of wisdom and of justice" it was "not art". Now dated, it belongs to literary prose, where a modern reader may mistake it for art as creative work.

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights, first published in 1847. library.buffalo.edu
    • Wuthering Heights describes a character employing art rather than force. gutenberg.org
    • Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote The Revolt of Islam. en.wikisource.org
    • The poem describes an old man's speech about wisdom and justice as sincere rather than manipulative, using the quoted words. en.wikisource.org

More uses

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Origins

Meanings 1–5, 7

It comes from Middle English "art," borrowed from Old French "art," which came from Latin "ars" (accusative "artem"), meaning "art." It partly displaced the native Old English word "cræft," which gives us Modern English "craft."

Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

Meaning 6

This comes from Middle English "art," from Old English "eart," the second-person singular present form of "wesan" (to be). Its deeper origin is uncertain; one proposal traces it to Proto-Germanic "*art" (originally "thou becamest") and a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to lift, rise, set in motion." It is related to Icelandic "ert" and Old English "earon" (are).

Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts