artifice

Kit Harington and Mirren Mack star in a screen version of the classic novel that, in its stagy artifice, follows a familiar pattern among recent period pieces.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

He told me, with absolutely no artifice, that what he finds more interesting about the championship is whether Hull would face relegation or if Leeds could finish in the top half of the table.

From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2026

But layer a catchy tune over all that artifice, and the music is the only thing many people will hear.

From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2026

We are reminded that Matisse always affirmed the artifice of painting, presenting us with undisguised models surrounded by studio props, often in garments that repeat from painting to painting.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026

Rowan couldn’t be sure if the man believed it, or if it was all artifice.

From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman

But they also find droll humor in the artifices and absurdities that some see in the genre.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026

He was charged with one count of fraud schemes and artifices, one count of theft and two counts of false return in September 2020 and pleaded guilty in the case six months ago.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 19, 2022

Of course part of human nature is to develop cultural and various kinds of artifices that in many ways shape the aspects of our nature.

From Slate ● Jan. 24, 2018

Endings are artifices, especially in movies, where the happy ending is a convention so deeply ingrained in mass entertainment that the unhappy ending has become a similarly absurd convention of art-house productions.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 13, 2016

This time, along with many other artifices, they brought a flying carpet.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez