Phrase guide

art for art's sake

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Art with no function; whose only purpose is beauty.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Qualifier: slogan

Topics: art, arts

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: ars gratia artis

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Calque of French l'art pour l'art, a phrase credited to Théophile Gautier. See the Wikipedia article for more.

Across languages

Translations

20 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Czech: umění pro umění — art, slogan
  • Finnish: taide taiteen vuoksi — art, slogan
  • French: l'art pour l'art — art, slogan
  • Galician: arte pola arte — art, slogan
  • German: Kunst um der Kunst willen — art, slogan
  • German: l'art pour l'art — art, slogan
  • Hungarian: művészet a művészetért — art, slogan
  • Hungarian: öncélú / önmagáért való művészet — art, slogan
  • Hungarian: l'art pour l'art — art, slogan
  • Japanese: 芸術のための芸術 (geijutsu no tame no geijutsu) — art, slogan
  • Korean: 예술지상주의 (yesuljisangjuui) — art, slogan
  • Latin: ars gratiā artis — art, slogan
  • Macedonian: уметност заради уметност (umetnost zaradi umetnost) — art, slogan
  • Polish: sztuka dla sztuki — art, slogan
  • Portuguese: arte pela arte — art, slogan
  • Romanian: artă de dragul artei — art, slogan
  • Russian: иску́сство ра́ди иску́сства (iskússtvo rádi iskússtva) — art, slogan
  • Spanish: el arte por el arte — art, slogan
  • Spanish: arte por el arte — art, slogan
  • Swedish: konst for konstens skull — art, slogan