English
art
see also: Art, ART
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ɑːt/
  • (America) IPA: /ɑɹt/
  • (Estuary English) IPA: [ɑːʔ]
  • (Ireland) IPA: [äˑɹt], [-ɻ-], [ɑˑɻt]
  • (Northern England, Wales) IPA: [aːt], [äːt], [ɒːt]
  • (New York City) IPA: [ɒət], [ɒɹt]
  • (Canada) IPA: [ɑ̈ɹt], [ɐɹt]
  • (Australia, New Zealand) IPA: /ɐːt/, [äːt]
  • (South Africa) IPA: /ɑːt/, [ɑːtʰ], [-tsʰ]
Etymology 1

From Middle English art, from Old French art, from Latin artem, accusative of ars ("art").

Noun

art

  1. (uncountable) The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colours, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the senses and emotions, usually specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
    There is a debate as to whether graffiti is art or vandalism.
    • 1992 May 3, “Comrade Bingo”, in Jeeves and Wooster, Series 3, Episode 6:
      B.W. Wooster: If you ask me, art is responsible for most of the trouble in the world.
      R. Jeeves: An interesting theory, sir. Would you care to expatiate upon it?
      B.W. Wooster: As a matter of fact, no, Jeeves. The thought just occurred to me, as thoughts do.
      R. Jeeves: Very good, sir.
    • 2009, Alexander Brouwer, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
      Visual art is a subjective understanding or perception of the viewer as well as a deliberate/conscious arrangement or creation of elements like colours, forms, movements, sounds, objects or other elements that produce a graphic or plastic whole that expresses thoughts, ideas or visions of the artist.
  2. (uncountable) The creative and emotional expression of mental imagery, such as visual, auditory, social, etc.
  3. (countable) Skillful creative activity, usually with an aesthetic focus.
    She's mastered the art of programming.
  4. (uncountable) The study and the product of these processes.
    He's at university to study art.
  5. (uncountable) Aesthetic value.
    Her photographs are nice, but there's no art in them.
  6. (uncountable) Artwork.
    Sotheby's regularly auctions art for millions.
    art collection
  7. (countable) A field or category of art, such as painting, sculpture, music, ballet, or literature.
    I'm a great supporter of the arts.
  8. (countable) A nonscientific branch of learning; one of the liberal arts.
  9. (countable) Skill that is attained by study, practice, or observation.
    • 1796, Matthew Lewis, The Monk, Folio Society, published 1985, page 217:
      A physician was immediately sent for; but on the first moment of beholding the corpse, he declared that Elvira's recovery was beyond the power of art.
    • 1855, Harriet Martineau's translation, The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte Vol. 1, Introduction, Ch. 2, page 21, ↗ from Auguste Comte, Cours de philosophie positive (1830–1842)
      The relation of science to art may be summed up in a brief expression: From Science comes Prevision: from Prevision comes Action.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗, page 58 ↗:
      The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.
  10. (uncountable, dated) Contrivance, scheming, manipulation.
    • 1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC ↗, page 222 ↗:
      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.
    • 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter VI, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume I, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC ↗, page 112 ↗:
      [...] and Mrs. Earnshaw undertook to keep her sister-in-law in due restraint, when she returned home employing art, not force—with force she would have found it impossible.
Synonyms Antonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Etymology 2

From Middle English art, from Old English eart, second-person singular present indicative of wesan, from Proto-Germanic *art, second-person singular preterite indicative form of *iraną ("to rise, be quick, become active"), from Proto-Indo-European *er-, *or(w)- ("to lift, rise, set in motion").

Cognate with Faroese ert, Icelandic ert, Old English earon, from the same preterite-present Germanic verb.

Verb
  1. (archaic) second-person singular simple present indicative of be
    How great thou art!
Art
Proper noun
  1. A male given name.
ART
Noun

art

  1. Abbreviation of Achilles tendon reflex time
  2. Abbreviation of assisted reproductive technology
  3. Abbreviation of Androgen Replacement Therapy
  4. Abbreviation of Active Release Technique
  5. Abbreviation of Adaptive resonance theory
  6. Abbreviation of Algebraic Reconstruction Technique
  7. Abbreviation of Alternative Risk Transfer
  8. Abbreviation of acoustic resonance technology
  9. Abbreviation of antiretroviral therapy


This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002
Offline English dictionary