artifice

1. A handicraft; a trade; art of making. [Obs.] 2. Workmanship; a skillfully contrived work. The material universe.. in the artifice of God, the artifice of the best Mechanist. Cudworth. 3. Artful or skillful contrivance. His [Congreve's] plots were constructed without much artifice. Craik. 4. Crafty device; an artful, ingenious, or elaborate trick. Note: [Now the usual meaning.] Those who were conscious of guilt employed numerous artifices for the purpose of averting inquiry. Macaulay.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), United States public domain. See methodology for full licensing detail. Word validity for game play may differ from any official game dictionary.