artful
clever or skillful, sometimes crafty
Root
- art: skill, craft, or human making
Other words with the art root
- art: skill, craft, or creative making
- artifice: clever trickery or artificial craft
- artificial: made by humans; not natural
- artless: without guile; natural or naive
- inert: inactive or having no power to act
Artful means full of craft: skillful enough to impress, and sometimes crafty enough to hide the trick.
The negotiator gave an artful answer that satisfied the room without promising much.
Artful sits on a useful edge. Art can mean skill; artifice can mean trickery. So an artful move may be elegant, evasive, or both.