noun
Meaning 1
An object made or shaped by human hand or labor.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
artifact
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
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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Received-Pronunciation: /ˈɑːtɪfækt/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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General-American: /ˈɑɹtɪfækt/
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General-American: [-ɾɪ-]
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General-American: [-ɾə-]
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CMU ARPABET: AA1 R T AH0 F AE2 K T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
An object made or shaped by some agent or intelligence, not necessarily of direct human origin.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
Something viewed as a product of human agency or conception rather than an inherent element.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
A finding or structure in an experiment or investigation that is not a true feature of the object under observation, but is a result of external action, the test arrangement, or an experimental error.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US
Examples
- The spot on his lung turned out to be an artifact of the X-ray process.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
An object, such as a tool, ornament, or weapon of archaeological or historical interest, especially such an object found at an archaeological excavation.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US
Topics: archaeology, history, human-sciences, sciences
Examples
- The dig produced many Roman artifacts.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
An appearance or structure in protoplasm due to death, the method of preparation of specimens, or the use of reagents, and not present during life.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US
Topics: biology, natural-sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 7
A perceptible distortion that appears in an audio or video file or an image as a result of applying a lossy compression or other inexact processing algorithm or of physical interference in an acquisition process.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US
Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, medicine, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, radiology, sciences
Examples
- This JPEG image has been so highly compressed that it has unsightly artifacts, making it unsuitable for the cover of our magazine.
- The opacity in his chest radiograph turned out to be an artifact due to the film.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 8
Ellipsis of build artifact.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences, software
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 9
Any object in the collection of a museum. May be used sensu stricto only for human-made objects, or may include ones that are not human-made.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 10
a man-made object taken as a whole
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: artefact
Antonyms: natural object
Broader terms: whole, unit
Narrower terms: article, facility, Americana, anachronism, antiquity, block, button, commodity, trade good, good, cone, covering, creation, decker, decoration, ornament, ornamentation, electroplate, excavation, extra, duplicate, fabric, cloth, material, textile, installation, fixture, float, insert, inset, instrumentality, instrumentation, layer, bed, lemon, stinker, line, marker, mystification, opening, padding, cushioning, plaything, toy, ready-made, restoration, sheet, flat solid, sphere, square, squeaker, strip, slip, structure, construction, surface, thing, track, way, weight, building material, paving, pavement, paving material
History
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h2er- Proto-Indo-European *h2értis Proto-Italic *artis Latin ars Latin arte Proto-Indo-European *dheh1- Proto-Indo-European *dheh1k- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *dhh1kyéti Proto-Italic *θakjō Proto-Italic *fakjō Latin faciō Latin factum Vulgar Latin *artefactum Italian artefattoder. English artifact Alteration of artefact, from Italian artefatto, from Latin arte (“by skill”) (ablative of ars (“art”)) + factum (“thing made”) (from facio (“to make, do”)).
Across languages
Translations
96 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Catalan: artefacte — object made or shaped by human hand
- Chinese Mandarin: 人工製品 /人工制品 (réngōng zhìpǐn) — object made or shaped by human hand
- Czech: artefakt — object made or shaped by human hand
- Dutch: artefact — object made or shaped by human hand
- Esperanto: artefakto — object made or shaped by human hand
- Finnish: artefakti — object made or shaped by human hand
- Finnish: esine — object made or shaped by human hand
- Finnish: teennös — object made or shaped by human hand
- French: artefact — object made or shaped by human hand
- French: artéfact — object made or shaped by human hand
- Georgian: არტეფაქტი (arṭepakṭi) — object made or shaped by human hand
- German: Artefakt — object made or shaped by human hand
- Greek: τέχνημα (téchnima) — object made or shaped by human hand
- Greek: τεχνούργημα (technoúrgima) — object made or shaped by human hand
- Hungarian: műtárgy — object made or shaped by human hand
- Indonesian: artefak — object made or shaped by human hand
- Irish: déantán — object made or shaped by human hand
- Irish: déantúsán — object made or shaped by human hand
- Italian: artefatto — object made or shaped by human hand
- Italian: manufatto — object made or shaped by human hand
- Japanese: 人工物 (jinkōbutsu) — object made or shaped by human hand
- Japanese: 加工品 (kakōhin) — object made or shaped by human hand
- Japanese: 工芸品 (kōgeihin) — object made or shaped by human hand
- Korean: 인공물 (in'gongmul) — object made or shaped by human hand
- Latvian: artefakts — object made or shaped by human hand
- Macedonian: артефакт (artefakt) — object made or shaped by human hand
- Polish: artefakt — object made or shaped by human hand
- Polish: wytwór — object made or shaped by human hand
- Portuguese: artefato — object made or shaped by human hand
- Portuguese: artefacto — object made or shaped by human hand
- Russian: артефа́кт (artefákt) — object made or shaped by human hand
- Slovene: artefakt — object made or shaped by human hand
- Spanish: artefacto — object made or shaped by human hand
- Swedish: artefakt — object made or shaped by human hand
- Turkish: artefakt — object made or shaped by human hand
- Turkish: insan yapımı — object made or shaped by human hand
- Catalan: artefacte — something viewed as a product of human conception
- Dutch: mensenwerk — something viewed as a product of human conception
- Finnish: tuote — something viewed as a product of human conception
- Finnish: tulos — something viewed as a product of human conception
- Finnish: luomus — something viewed as a product of human conception
- Finnish: artefakti — something viewed as a product of human conception
- French: artefact — something viewed as a product of human conception
- Georgian: არტეფაქტი (arṭepakṭi) — something viewed as a product of human conception
- Greek: τέχνημα (téchnima) — something viewed as a product of human conception
- Indonesian: artefak — something viewed as a product of human conception
- Indonesian: alat — something viewed as a product of human conception
- Italian: prodotto — something viewed as a product of human conception
- Portuguese: produto — something viewed as a product of human conception
- Spanish: artefacto — something viewed as a product of human conception
- Swedish: artefakt — something viewed as a product of human conception
- Catalan: artefacte — artificial feature
- Finnish: häiriö — artificial feature
- Finnish: virhehavainto — artificial feature
- Finnish: väärä löydös — artificial feature
- Finnish: artefakti — artificial feature
- French: construction — artificial feature
- Georgian: არტეფაქტი (arṭepakṭi) — artificial feature
- Polish: artefakt — artificial feature
- Portuguese: interferência — artificial feature
- Spanish: artefacto — artificial feature
- Swedish: artefakt — artificial feature
- Armenian: գտածո (gtaco) — archaeological object
- Catalan: artefacte — archaeological object
- Chinese Mandarin: 手工藝品 /手工艺品 (shǒugōng yìpǐn) — archaeological object
- Czech: artefakt — archaeological object
- Dutch: artefact — archaeological object
- Finnish: esine — archaeological object
- Finnish: artefakti — archaeological object
- French: artéfact — archaeological object
- French: artefact — archaeological object
- Georgian: არტეფაქტი (arṭepakṭi) — archaeological object
- German: Artefakt — archaeological object
- Greek: τέχνημα (téchnima) — archaeological object
- Hungarian: lelet — archaeological object
- Indonesian: artefak — archaeological object
- Japanese: 遺物 (ibutsu) — archaeological object
- Japanese: 埋蔵物 (maizōbutsu) — archaeological object
- Korean: 인공물 (in'gongmul) — archaeological object
- Macedonian: артефакт (artefakt) — archaeological object
- Malay: artifak — archaeological object
- Norwegian: kulturgjenstand — archaeological object
- Polish: artefakt — archaeological object
- Portuguese: artefato — archaeological object
- Portuguese: artefacto — archaeological object
- Russian: артефа́кт (artefákt) — archaeological object
- Slovene: artefakt — archaeological object
- Spanish: artefacto — archaeological object
- Swedish: artefakt — archaeological object
- Vietnamese: hiện vật — archaeological object
- Finnish: artefakti — biology
- Polish: artefakt — biology
- Portuguese: artefato — biology
- Polish: artefakt — computing
- Finnish: museoesine — object in the collection of a museum
- Vietnamese: hiện vật — object in the collection of a museum
Real reading context