Art

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. The second person singular, indicative mood, present tense, of the verb be (which see).
2. n. The combination or modification of things to adapt them to a given end; the employment of given means to effect a purpose.
3. n. Skill; dexterity; an especial facility in performing any operation, intellectual or physical, acquired by experience or study; knack.
4. n. Artfulness; cunning.
5. n. A system of rules and traditional methods for facilitating the performance of certain actions; acquaintance with such rules or skill in applying them, as in any manual trade or handicraft, technical profession, or physical accomplishment: as, the art of building or of engraving; the healing art; the art of music or of dancing; the practical or the elegant arts: in this sense opposed to science.
6. n. An organized body of men practising a given trade, and carrying out an established system of rules and traditions; a guild.
7. n. A branch of learning regarded as an instrument of thought, or as something the knowledge of which is to be acquired in order to be applied or practised: chiefly in the plural, and in such phrases as master of arts, faculty of arts, etc. Formerly in the universities the seven liberal arts were the Roman trivium, grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and the Pythagorean quadrivium, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. But by art, in the middle ages, was usually meant logic, that being the principal study in the faculty of arts.
8. n. Esthetics; the science and theory of beauty in perception and expression.
9. n. Artistic or esthetic quality; the exhibition of the power of perceiving the beautiful and of expressing it in artistic forms: as, a picture skilfully painted, but devoid of art. The actual production or construction of objects beautiful in form, color, or sound; the practical application of esthetic principles, as in the departments of production specifically called the fine arts (which see, below); especially, painting and sculpture.
10. n. Synonyms Aptitude, readiness, address, tact, adroitness, contrivance.
11. n. Shrewdness, subtlety, cunning, artifice, deceit, duplicity.
12. n. Art, Science. The essential diference between an art and a science is in aim. “Science and art may be said to be investigations of truth, but science inquires for the sake of knowledge, art for the sake of production.” (Karslake.) Hence, they differ somewhat in that with which they are concerned. “An art directly and immediately concerns itself with a faculty…. It fastens upon that, and keeps it ever in its view as it teaches how that may be developed, trained, and guided. A science, on the other hand, regards rather the product of faculty, and, keeping its view directly upon that, proceeds to unfold its nature and proper characteristics.”(H. N. Day, Art of Discourse, § 1.) Incidental to this difference is a difference in method, science being analytic and critical, while art is synthetic and constructive. In the matter which makes up the body of the two an art, involves the means of discipline in the use of the knowledge which may have been furnished by a corresponding science. The same branch of knowledge may be regarded as either a science or an art. It may be viewed theoretically, as seeking, coördinating, arranging, and systematizing knowledge, and by observation, comparison, abstraction, and generalization deducing laws; or as, with more or less reference to such preparatory work, framing rules which are the lessons of experience, and are designed to facilitate work or give it superior excellence. The more complete the scientific basis of an art, the more perfect the art. There is a secondary use of the word science by which it stands for an art that thus rests upon a science, as in the following:
13. To force; compel; constrain.
14. To induce; incite.
15. Also written arct.
16. A suffix, another form of -ard, as in braggart.

Wiktionary

1. n. A diminutive of the male given name Arthur.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. The second person singular, indicative mode, present tense, of the substantive verb be; but formed after the analogy of the plural are, with the ending -t, as in thou shalt, wilt, orig. an ending of the second person sing. pret. Cf. be. Now used only in solemn or poetical style.
2. n. The employment of means to accomplish some desired end; the adaptation of things in the natural world to the uses of life; the application of knowledge or power to practical purposes.
3. n. A system of rules serving to facilitate the performance of certain actions; a system of principles and rules for attaining a desired end; method of doing well some special work; -- often contradistinguished from science or speculative principles
4. n. The systematic application of knowledge or skill in effecting a desired result. Also, an occupation or business requiring such knowledge or skill.
5. n. The application of skill to the production of the beautiful by imitation or design, or an occupation in which skill is so employed, as in painting and sculpture; one of the fine arts.
6. n. Those branches of learning which are taught in the academical course of colleges.
7. n. Archaic Learning; study; applied knowledge, science, or letters.
8. n. Skill, dexterity, or the power of performing certain actions, acquired by experience, study, or observation; knack.
9. n. Skillful plan; device.
10. n. Cunning; artifice; craft.
11. n. obsolete The black art; magic.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the creation of beautiful or significant things
2. n. the products of human creativity; works of art collectively
3. n. photographs or other visual representations in a printed publication
4. n. a superior skill that you can learn by study and practice and observation