Definition of "art" []

• Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature. (noun)
• The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium. (noun)
• The study of these activities. (noun)
• The product of these activities; human works of beauty considered as a group. (noun)
• High quality of conception or execution, as found in works of beauty; aesthetic value. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "ATTRIBUTION: HILTON KRAMER, The New York Times art critic, in the late 1960s when the term “minimal art” was in vogue."
• "NATURE, the art whereby God hath made and governs the world, is by the ‘art, ’ of man, as in many other things, so in this also imitated, that it can make an artificial animal."
• "Cellini’s use of the word arte for the art or trade of goldsmiths corresponds to “the art” as used by English writers early in this century."