Meaning & use
artist
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Meanings
nouncountable
Someone who makes things such as paintings, sculptures or drawings as a creative pursuit or career.
Grammar: Countable: a street artist, two artists.
Patterns
- an artist who paints something
- an artist of some kind
She trained as an artist at a small college by the sea.
The artist spent months on a single mural.
Many artists sell their work at weekend markets.
nouncountable
A performer or creator in music, dance or other entertainment, especially a singer or band with recorded work.
Grammar: Often appears in music contexts: a recording artist.
Patterns
- a recording artist
- an artist on a label
The festival features more than forty artists on three stages.
He is my favorite artist because every album sounds different.
The artist thanked the crowd after her final song.
nouncountableinformal
A person who is unusually skilled at something, as if it were a fine craft.
Grammar: Usually followed by a noun adjunct or preposition: a con artist, an artist at cooking.
Patterns
- a con artist
- an artist at something
My uncle is an artist at the grill; his ribs are legendary.
The thief was a real escape artist and slipped away unseen.
She is a true artist with a spreadsheet.
Word forms
| plural | artists |
|---|
Common combinations
- struggling artist
- As a struggling artist, he painted signs to pay the rent.
- recording artist
- The recording artist announced a world tour.
- street artist
- A street artist sketched portraits beside the fountain.
- gifted artist
- Even as a child she was a gifted artist.
- con artist
- A con artist persuaded the couple to hand over their savings.
Synonyms and how they differ
- painter
- A painter works specifically with paint, whereas artist covers many creative forms.
- creator
- Creator is broader and can mean anyone who makes anything, including a founder or a god, so it carries less of the fine-art sense.
- craftsperson
- A craftsperson stresses practical handmade skill, while an artist stresses imagination and self-expression.
- performer
- A performer entertains live, whereas an artist may be someone whose work is made in private and shown later.
Opposites
Word family
- artistic adjective
- having or showing creative skill
- artistically adverb
- in a way that relates to art or skill
- artistry noun
- creative skill in making something
- art noun
- creative work or the making of it
- artiste noun
- a professional entertainer, such as a singer or dancer
Commonly confused: artist or artisan?
artist vs artisan
An artisan makes useful goods by hand, like furniture or bread, whereas an artist is mainly valued for creative expression.
Practice
Which sentence uses artist in the informal sense of someone very skilled at something?
Choose one answer.
Being an artist at fixing bicycles praises skill in a practical task. The other options use artist for creators of paintings, music or talks.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “artist”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.