arts

art ¹  (ärt)

n.

1. Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature.

2.

a. The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.

b. The study of these activities.

c. The product of these activities; human works of beauty considered as a group.

3. High quality of conception or execution, as found in works of beauty; aesthetic value.

4. A field or category of art, such as music, ballet, or literature.

5. A nonscientific branch of learning; one of the liberal arts.

6.

a. A system of principles and methods employed in the performance of a set of activities: the art of building.

b. A trade or craft that applies such a system of principles and methods: the art of the lexicographer.

7.

a. Skill that is attained by study, practice, or observation: the art of the baker; the blacksmith's art.

b. Skill arising from the exercise of intuitive faculties: "Self-criticism is an art not many are qualified to practice" Joyce Carol Oates.

8.

a. arts Artful devices, stratagems, and tricks.

b. Artful contrivance; cunning.

9. Printing Illustrative material.

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[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin ars, art-; see ar- in Indo-European roots.]

Synonyms: art¹, craft, expertise, knack, know-how, technique
These nouns denote skill in doing or performing that is attained by study, practice, or observation: the art of rhetoric; pottery that reveals an artist's craft; political expertise; a knack for teaching; mechanical know-how; a precise diving technique.

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arts

Noun, pl

1. the arts the nonscientific branches of knowledge

2. See fine art

3. cunning schemes

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

arts - studies intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills (rather than occupational or professional skills); "the college of arts and sciences" humanistic discipline, humanities, liberal arts discipline, field of study, subject area, subject field, bailiwick, subject, field, study - a branch of knowledge; "in what discipline is his doctorate?"; "teachers should be well trained in their subject"; "anthropology is the study of human beings" neoclassicism - revival of a classical style (in art or literature or architecture or music) but from a new perspective or with a new motivation classicalism, classicism - a movement in literature and art during the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe that favored rationality and restraint and strict forms; "classicism often derived its models from the ancient Greeks and Romans" Romantic Movement, Romanticism - a movement in literature and art during the late 18th and early 19th centuries that celebrated nature rather than civilization; "Romanticism valued imagination and emotion over rationality" English - the discipline that studies the English language and literature history - the discipline that records and interprets past events involving human beings; "he teaches Medieval history"; "history takes the long view" art history - the academic discipline that studies the development of painting and sculpture chronology - the determination of the actual temporal sequence of past events beaux arts, fine arts - the study and creation of visual works of art performing arts - arts or skills that require public performance Occidentalism - the scholarly knowledge of western cultures and languages and people Oriental Studies, Orientalism - the scholarly knowledge of Asian cultures and languages and people philosophy - the rational investigation of questions about existence and knowledge and ethics literary study - the humanistic study of literature library science - the study of the principles and practices of library administration philology, linguistics - the humanistic study of language and literature musicology - the scholarly and scientific study of music Sinology - the study of Chinese history and language and culture stemmatics, stemmatology - the humanistic discipline that attempts to reconstruct the transmission of a text (especially a text in manuscript form) on the basis of relations between the various surviving manuscripts (sometimes using cladistic analysis); "stemmatology also plays an important role in musicology"; "transcription errors are of decisive importance in stemmatics" trivium - (Middle Ages) an introductory curriculum at a medieval university involving grammar and logic and rhetoric; considered to be a triple way to eloquence quadrivium - (Middle Ages) a higher division of the curriculum in a medieval university involving arithmetic and music and geometry and astronomy

Translations

arts [ɑːts] npl (Scol) → lettres fpl

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arts [ɑːts] npl (SCOL) → lettere fpl