Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Artless

Definition: Artless

Artless

Adjective

1. Characterized by an inability to mask your feelings; not devious; "an ingenuous admission of responsibility".

2. Simple and natural; without cunning or deceit; "an artless manner"; "artless elegance".

3. Showing lack of art; "an artless translation".

4. (of persons) lacking art or knowledge.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "artless" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)


Synonyms: Artless

Synonyms: ingenuous (adj), uncultivated (adj), uncultured (adj). (additional references)
Antonyms: artful (adj), disingenuous (adj). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Artless

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Artlessness

Verb: be artless; adj; look one in the face; wear one's heart upon his sleeves for daws to peck at; think aloud; speak out, speak one's mind; be free with one, call a spade a spade.

Adjective: artless, natural, pure, native, confiding, simple, lain, inartificial, untutored, unsophisticated, ingenu, unaffected, naive; sincere, frank; open, open as day; candid, ingenuous, guileless; unsuspicious, honest; innocent; Arcadian; undesigning, straightforward, unreserved, aboveboard; simple-minded, single-minded; frank-hearted, open-hearted, single-hearted, simple-hearted.

Discourtesy

Untactful, impolitic, undiplomatic; artless;

Innocence

Adjective: innocent, not guilty; unguilty; guiltless, faultless, sinless, stainless, bloodless, spotless; clear, immaculate; rectus in curia; unspotted, unblemished, unerring; undefiled; unhardened, Saturnian; Arcadian; (artless).

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Artless

English words defined with "artless": Idyl, Inartificial, Incony, ingenueOpen vowelPlain speaking, Plain-dealing, Plain-heartedRustic workSimple obligationUnartful, Undesigning. (references)
Specialty definitions using "artless": Imogenlimb. (references)

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Commercial Usage: Artless

DomainTitle

Books

  • An Artless Art: The Zen Aesthetic of Shiga Naoya: A Critical Study With Selected Translations (Japan Library) (reference)

  • Artless Integrity (reference)

  • Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Artless Art (reference)

  • The artless artist's guide to artistic achievement (reference)

  • The Artless Jew: Medieval and Modern Affirmations and Denials of the Visual [DOWNLOAD: ADOBE READER] (reference)

    (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Use in Literature: Artless

TitleAuthorQuote

Les Miserables

Hugo, Victor

It was still only an artless astonishment, but a sort of blind confidence was associated with it.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Artless

SubjectTopicQuote

Lexicography

Devil's Dictionary

LIMB, n. The branch of a tree or the leg of an American woman. 'Twas a pair of boots that the lady bought, And the salesman laced them tight To a very remarkable height -- Higher, indeed, than I think he ought -- Higher than can be right. For the Bible declares -- but never mind: It is hardly fit To censure freely and fault to find With others for sins that I'm not inclined Myself to commit. Each has his weakness, and though my own Is freedom from every sin, It still were unfair to pitch in, Discharging the first censorious stone. Besides, the truth compels me to say, The boots in question were made that way. As he drew the lace she made a grimace, And blushingly said to him: "This boot, I'm sure, is too high to endure, It hurts my -- hurts my -- limb." The salesman smiled in a manner mild, Like an artless, undesigning child; Then, checking himself, to his face he gave A look as sorrowful as the grave, Though he didn't care two figs For her paints and throes, As he stroked her toes, Remarking with speech and manner just Befitting his calling: "Madam, I trust That it doesn't hurt your twigs." B. Percival Dike

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Artless

"Artless" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Artless" is used about 31 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)100%3162,296

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Artless

Language Translations for "artless"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Albanian

  

i thjeshtë (abecedarian, austere, bare, chaste, childlike, common, easy, elementary, enlisted, folksy, foolproof, Hick, home-bred, homely, homespun, humble, inelaborate, informal, ingenuous, inornate, mere, modest, native, natural, neat, not mingled, onefold, ordinary, plain, prime, primitive, private, pure, quotidian, rude, russet, rustic, simple, unaffected, unassuming, unceremonious, unpretending, unpretentious, unsophisticated, very), i rëndë (arduous, awkward, bad, bulky, burdensome, cubbish, cumbersome, cumbrous, dead, difficile, elephantine, grave, grievous, grinding, hard, heavy, hefty, incondite, knock about, leaden, lumping, massive, oafish, onerous, peremptory, plodding, ponderous, portly, serious, set up, severe, solemn, stertorous, stodgy, tricky, unwieldy, wakeless, weighty), i pamësuar (inexpert, raw, unaccustomed, uncustomary, undisciplined, unfamiliar, unlearned, unlettered, unused), i pagdhendur (bearish, crass, Hick, hillbilly, loutish, lowlife, oafish, raffish, rank, rough, uncouth, unhewn), i padjallëzuar (guileless, innocent, naïve, sincere), i natyrshëm (inartificial, inborn, inbred, matter of course, native, natural, unstudied), i çiltër (candid, direct, downright, forthright, genuine, guileless, heartfelt, heart-to-heart, heart-whole, hearty, innocent, open, open-hearted, plain, plain spoken, simple-hearted, sincere, straight, straightforward, truthful, unaffected, unsophisticated, wholehearted). (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏غير بارع (amateurish, bungling, clumsy, inapt, inferior, profane, unskilful, unskilled, unworkmanlike), ‏غر (calf's, callow, child, decoy, half-witted, inexperienced, naive, raw, rude, stranger, unskilled, young), ‏ساذج (credulous, drip, gaga, gimp, green, guileless, gullible, honest, ingenuous, innocent, mug, naive, ninny, oafish, pastoral, patsy, platitudinous, primitive, provincial, silly, simple, unsophisticated, untutored, unworldly), ‏جاهل (benighted, blockhead, ignorant, illiterate, innocent, nescient, primitive, raw, rude, simple, unaware, unlettered, untaught), ‏برئ (angelic, blameless, clear, guileless, guiltless, harmless, honest, inculpable, ingenuous, innocent, naive, pure, simple, starry eyed, white). (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

несръчно изработен, невинен (blameless, clean-handed, guileless, guiltless, innocent, irreproachable, sinless, unblamable, unoffending, unsophisticated, virginal, white, white-handed, wide-eyed), непринуден (affable, childlike, easy, familiar, free, go-as-you-please, informal, rustic, simple, spontaneous, unconstrained, unlabored, unlaboured, unpretending, unpretentious, unstarched, unstrained, unstudied, unstuffy), непохватен (awkward, bumbling, chuckle, clumsy, gawky, heavy, lubberly, two-fisted, uncouth, ungainly, unhandy, unskilful), наивен (fond, green, guileless, gullible, ingenuous, jejune, naпve, naif, silly, simple, undesigning, unsophisticated, untutored, unworldly, wide-eyed), естествен (honorary, ingenuous, innate, living, matter of course, native, natural, simple, spontaneous, unceremonious, uncoined, unpretending, unschooled, unsophisticated, unstarched, unstrained, untaught, untutored), прост (abc, childlike, common, commonplace, easy, elemental, elementary, funky, grave, homelike, homespun, humble, illiberal, low, native, onefold, open and shut, ordinary, plain, prime, primitive, rugged, rustic, simple, sleazy, straight, straightforward, uncomplicated, unpretentious, vulgar). (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

天真 (innocent, naive). (various references)

   

Czech

  

nelíèený (genuine, unconcealed), bezelstný (dewy-eyed, guileless, ingenuous, innocent, naïve, simple minded, unworldly). (various references)

   

Finnish

  

teeskentelemätön (sincere, unaffected, unfeigned), koruton (simple, unaffected), koristelematon (natural, unaffected). (various references)

   

French

  

naïf, ingénu, ignorant. (various references)

   

German

  

natürlich (certainly, elemental, inbuilt, natural, naturally, of course, physical, simple, unadorned, unaffected, unaffectedly, unforced, unpretentious, unpretentiously, unsophisticated, unstudied, unstudiedly, untaught). (various references)

   

Greek 

  

άτεχνοσ (awkward, coarse, crude, inartistic, splay), αφελήσ (ingenuous, naοve, naif, simple, simpleminded). (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

תם (honest, ingenuous, innocent, naןve, simple). (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

mûvészietlen (inartistic). (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

alamiah (concerned with nature), tak berseni, sederhana (austere, frugal, homely, humble, plain, simple, temperate, unostentatious, unpretentious), kasar (abrupt, abusive, blunt, boorish, broad, brutal, brutish, crass, crude, curt, disrespectful, gruff, menial, raw, rude, unkind, vulgar). (various references)

   

Italian

  

semplice (easy, greenly, homely, ingenuous, mere, modest, modeste, naive, ordinary, plain, rustic, simple, simpleminded, simply, single, straightforward, unaffected, unit), ingenuo (brainless, childlike, guileless, gullible, ingenue, ingenuous, naïve, naive, oafish, simple minded). (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

無技巧 (simple), 初々しい (innocent, unsophisticated), 初初しい (innocent, unsophisticated). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

ういういしい (innocent, unsophisticated), むぎ"う (simple). (various references)

   

Manx

  

oney (harmless, honest, innocent, innocuous, morally uncorrupted, simple, well-meant), neuellynagh (bad taste, ill-mannered, impolite, inartistic, rude, vulgar). (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

artlessay

   

Portuguese

  

vulgar (accepted, banal, blanket, coarse, common, commonplace, demotic, dismal, earthy, everyday, gossipy, gross, hackney, hackneyed, humdrum, inelaborate, low, low-minded, mediocre, ordinary, pedestrian, penny-a-line, platitudinarian, platitudinous, prosaic, quotidian, ready-made, soulless, trite, trivial, undistinguished, uninspired, unladylike, unoriginal, usual, vulgar, vulgarian), sincero (candid, convinced, cordial, deep, direct, downright, dyed-in-the, earnest, frank, freehearted, guileless, heartfelt, hearty, honest, ingenuous, open-hearted, outright, outspoken, plain, plainspoken, simple, simple-hearted, sincere, single-hearted, straight, straightforward, strong, true, true-hearted, unaffected, undisguised, unfeigned, unvarnished, whole-hearted, whole-souled), simples (chaste, classic, classical, convenient, easy, frugal, green, guileless, homely, homespun, humble, ingenuous, innocent, inornate, matter-of-course, mere, modest, natural, onefold, outage, plain, primary, pure, regular, self-effacing, sheer, shirt-sleeve, simple, simple-hearted, single, singles, smattering, soft, sole, solitary, straightforward, unaffected, unassuming, unlaboured, unostentatious, unsophisticated, unvarnished, unworldly), natural (apparent, breathing, flowing, genuine, glib, inartificial, inbred, innate, lifelike, matter-of-course, native, natural, normal, outage, physical, plain, shirt-sleeve, spontaneous, unaffected, unconstrained, unlaboured, unsophisticated, unstrained, unstudied, untaught, unvarnished), inexperiente (callow, fresh, green, half-baked, inexperienced, muff, outage, raw, shirt-sleeve, sucking, unpractised, unskilful, unskilled, unsophisticated, untrained, verdant, young), ignorante (benighted, dunce, heathen, ignoramus, ignorant, know-nothing, letterless, nescient, unacquainted, unaware, unconscious, uneducated, unenlightened, uninformed, unintelligent, unlearned, unlettered, unnurtured, unposted, unschooled, untaught, untutored, unversed). (various references)

   

Romanian

  

stângaci (awkward, awkwardly, bearish, clumsy, gawky, hulking, left handed, left-handed man, loose, lubber, lubberly, lumpish, maladroit, numb hand, splay, uncouth, uncouthly, ungainly, unskilful, unskilfully, unwieldy), sincer (above board, authentic, blunt, candid, candidly, childlike, devout, downright, fair, forthright, Frank, frankly, freehearted, free-spoken, genuine, guileless, heartfelt, heart-whole, hearty, honest, honestly, ingenuous, kind, open, open-hearted, outright, outspoken, overt, plain, plainly, right-down, round, sincere, single, straight, straightforward, true, truly, truthful, undisguised, unfeigned, unpretending, unreserved, well-meant), simplu (agrestic, austere, average, bald, bare, common, easy, elementary, grave, home-bred, homely, homespun, humble, humbly, mere, modest, natural, neat, patriarchal, plain, plainly, primitive, pure, quiet, ready, russet, segregate, simple, simple minded, simply, single, singular, soft-headed, straight, straightforward, unaffected, unassuming, undisguised, unpretending, unpretentious, unsophisticated, unvarnished), necomplicat, naiv (credulous, deceivable, dupable, dupe, green, gull, gullible, naïve, naif, puerile, silly, simple minded, simpleton, sincere, verdant), lipsit de artã, ingenuu (ingenuous), greoi (bearish, dull, elephantine, gawky, heavy, hulking, lubberly, lumpish, massy, ponderous, slow, stodgy, stolid, ungainly, ungraceful, unwieldy, weighty), deschis (above board, avowedly, bald, baldly, barefaced, barely, blunt, broad, direct, downright, flatly, forthright, Frank, frankly, freehearted, free-spoken, guileless, light, naked, open, openly, outright, outspoken, overt, overtly, pale, patent, plainly, raw, round, roundly, sincere, Square, straight, straightforward, unfeigned, unreserved). (various references)

   

Russian 

  

неискусный (inartful, inexpert, unartful, unskilful, unskillful), бесхитростный (ingenuous, shiftless, simpleminded), простодушный (guileless, ingenuous, naпve, onefold, one-fold, simple-hearted). (various references)

   

Scottish

  

simplidh (singlehearted). (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

prirodan (lively, native, natural), naivan (dupable, ingenuous, naďve, naif, starry eyed), bezazlen (childish, guileless, harmless, ingenuous, innocent, laudable, naďve, simplehearted, simple-hearted, unoffending, unsuspecting). (various references)

   

Spanish

  

torpe del nacimiento (bungling, coarse, gauche, maladroit), simple (a b c, a.b.c., abc, bare, mere, plain, simple, simple minded, single, straightforward), inculto (illiterate, rough, rough spoken, rude, uncultivated, unrefined), cándido (guileless, gullible, innocent, inoffensive, naïve, snow white). (various references)

   

Swedish

  

okonstlad (ingenuous, inornate, jejune, natural, simple, unaffected, unsophisticated). (various references)

   

Turkish

  

sanatsız, saf (absolute, all, candid, clean, clear, country bumpkin, credulous, deceivable, dewy-eyed, distilled, dupe, elemental, elementary, entire, facile, fine, genuine, greenhorn, gudgeon, guileless, gull, gullible, harmless, homespun, honest, immaculate, ingenuous, innocent, juggins, mere, naïve, pigeon, pristine, pure, pure-minded, rank, raw, real, refined, simple, simple minded, simple simon, simple-hearted, sterling, unadulterated, unalloyed, unblended, uncontaminated, undiluted, unmixed, unsophisticated, unsuspicious, untutored, unworldly, witless), sade (austere, bald, bare, chaste, frugal, frugally, homely, homespun, just, mere, merely, only, plain, pure, rustic, severe, simple, simplificative, sober, stark, unadorned, unmixed, unsophisticated), hünersiz, doğal (connatural, easy, free, inartificial, inborn, inbred, indigenous, ingenuous, inherent, innate, native, natural, spontaneous, unaffected, unschooled, unsophisticated, unstudied). (various references)

   

Turkmen 

  

gцwnaзyk (open-hearted). (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

грубий (abrupt, barbaresque, barbaric, base, bearish, boarish, broad, brusque, brute, caddish, chuffy, churlish, clownish, clumsy, coarse, coarse grained, crass, crude, gross, hard boiled, homely, ill bred, knockabout, offhand, plebeian, primitive, ribald, rough, rough spoken, rude, scratchy, shaggy, surly, swinish, truculent, uncouth), невмілий (blundering, botchy, bungling, fumbling, handless, ineffective, inept, inexpert, unskilful, unskilled), незграбний (angular, awkward, blundering, bouncing, bovine, clumsy, cubbish, cumbersome, fumbling, gangling, gauche, gawky, gnarled, graceless, ham-fisted, hulking, lob, lubberly, maladroit, oafish, shamble, splay, splayfooted, uncouth, ungainly, unskilful, wooden), наївний (babyish, innocent, naпve, unsophisticated), простодушний (guileless, onefold, shiftless, simple-hearted, untutored), простий (austere, babyish, bald, bare, childlike, mere, onefold, ordinary, plain, primary, prime, run of the mill, shirt-sleeve, simple, stateless, straightforward, unaffected, unartful, unceremonious, unsophisticated), природний (careless, connatural, elemental, inbred, indigenous, matter of course, native, natural, physic, radical, unartful, unlabored, unlaboured, untaught, untutored). (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

vụng (clumsy, unhandy, unskilful, unworkmanlike), tự nhiên (hair, natively, nature, off-hand, off-handed, secundum naturam, unvarnished), không giả tạo ngây thơ, chất phác không có mỹ thuật; không khéo, chân thật (bluff, genuine, heart-whole, hearty, onefold, open-hearted, right-minded, round, simple-minded, single-hearded). (various references)

   

Welsh

  

disyml (ingenuous, simple). (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Artless

Derivations

Words beginning with "artless": artlessly, artlessness, artlessnesses. (additional references)

Words ending with "artless": heartless, wartless. (additional references)

Words containing "artless": heartlessly, heartlessness, heartlessnesses. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Artless" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: antless, Antliss, argles, argleses, artel, artels, artles, Astles, Bartles, cartless, dartles, Hartless, Martles, ratless, Rayless. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Artless"

Words rhyming with "artless" (pronounced 'Art"less'): Actless, Ageless, Aidless, Aimless, Airless, Aisless, Approachless, Armless, Assistless, Avoidless, Awless, Awnless, Backless, Badgeless, Barkless, Baseless, Bashless, Bateless, Beamless, Beardless, Birthless, Bitless, Blameless, Blissless, Bloodless, Bloomless, Blotless, Blushless, Boastless, Boneless, Bookless, Bootless, Boteless, Boundless, Bournless, Bowless, Bractless, Bragless, Brainless, Branchless, Breadless, Breadthless, Breathless, Breezeless, Bribeless, Bridgeless, Briefless, Brimless, Browless, Bushless. (additional references)

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Anagrams: Artless

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Direct Anagrams: lasters, salters, slaters.

Words within the letters "a-e-l-r-s-s-t"

-1 letter: alerts, alters, artels, assert, asters, estral, lasers, laster, leasts, rassle, ratels, salter, slater, slates, staler, stales, stares, steals, stelar, talers, tassel, teslas.

-2 letters: alert, alter, arles, arses, artel, asset, aster, earls, easts, lares, laser, lases, lasts, later, lears, least, rales, rases, ratel, rates, reals, rests, sales, salts, sates, seals, sears, seats, seral.

 Words containing the letters "a-e-l-r-s-s-t"
 

+1 letter: blasters, harslets, lamsters, persalts, plasters, psalters, realists, reslates, salterns, saltiers, saltires, saluters, scarlets, slathers, stablers, stalkers, staplers, starless, starlets, startles, stealers, tearless, tramless, warstles, wartless, wastrels, wrastles.

 

+2 letters: alertness, arbalests, arbelests, artlessly, assaulter, australes, balusters, desalters, heartless, lamisters, lodestars, lustrates, maltsters, misalters, oleasters, oversalts, palestras, pilasters, plaisters, polestars, psaltries, resalutes, restorals, saleratus, semestral, serialist, slatterns, snarliest, splatters, sprattles, startlers, staumrels, storables, straddles, straggles, strangles, strapless, teaselers, traceless, trackless, trailless, treadless, warstlers, waterless.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

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Alternative Orthography: Artless


Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

41 72 74 6C 65 73 73

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)

=

Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)

Braille (1829, in France) (references)

Morse Code (1836) (references)

.-    .-.    -    .-..    .    ...    ...

Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01000001 01110010 01110100 01101100 01100101 01110011 01110011

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#65 &#114 &#116 &#108 &#101 &#115 &#115

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0041 0072 0074 006C 0065 0073 0073

British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

35848678718585

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Commercial
5. Quotations: Fiction
6. Quotations: Non-fiction
7. Usage Frequency
8. Translations: Modern
9. Derivations
10. Rhymes
11. Anagrams
12. Orthography
13. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.