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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

artifact en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /ˈɑɹtɪfækt/ (General-American)
  • [-ɾə-] (General-American)
  • /ˈɑːtɪfækt/ (Received-Pronunciation)
  • [-ɾɪ-] (General-American)

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”)).

Meanings

  1. (US) An object made or shaped by human hand or labor.
    • Given increasing investment in an IT (information technology) artifact (i.e., online service website), it is becoming important to retain existing customers. 2010 May 14, Young Sik Kang, Heeseok Lee, “Understanding the role of an IT artifact in online service continuance: An extended perspective of user satisfaction.(Report)”, in Computers in Human Behavior, →DOI:
  2. (US) An object made or shaped by some agent or intelligence, not necessarily of direct human origin.
  3. (US) Something viewed as a product of human agency or conception rather than an inherent element.
    • The very act of looking at a naked model was an artifact of male supremacy. 2004, Philip Weiss, American Taboo: A Murder In The Peace Corps:
    • Overall the signage at NIE has the appearance being a top-down artefact driven by institutional policy with English set as the default language. 2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 6:
  4. (US) 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.
    • The spot on his lung turned out to be an artifact of the X-ray process.
  5. (US) 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. ▸ 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.
  6. (US) 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. ▸ 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.
    • This JPEG image has been so highly compressed that it has unsightly artifacts, making it unsuitable for the cover of our magazine.
    • These hallucinations are compression artifacts, but—like the incorrect labels generated by the Xerox photocopier—they are plausible enough that identifying them requires comparing them against the originals, which in this case means either the Web or our own knowledge of the world. 2023 February 9, Ted Chiang, “ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web”, in The New Yorker:
    • The opacity in his chest radiograph turned out to be an artifact due to the film.
  7. (US) An object, such as a tool, ornament, or weapon of archaeological or historical interest, especially such an object found at an archaeological excavation.
    • Holy shit! It is fascinating when a country’s culture seeps even into their math lessons, although it’s not really surprising. As a British child, our math questions were “if Johnny has two artifacts and Dinesh has two artifacts, then how many artifacts is Johnny about to have?” The answer, of course, “all the artifacts, Dinesh’s family can come visit them in a British museum whenever they’re in town.” 2017, Tim Carvell [et al.], “North Korea”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 4, episode 21, John Oliver (actor), Warner Bros. Television, via HBO:
    • The dig produced many Roman artifacts.
  8. (US) An object, such as a tool, ornament, or weapon of archaeological or historical interest, especially such an object found at an archaeological excavation. ▸ A powerful weapon, armor or another object, often with magical properties.
  9. (US, abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis) Ellipsis of build artifact.
  10. (US) 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.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
artifacts Number=Plur lexicographic
artefact UK, alternative lexicographic

Coordinates

specimen · object

Deriveds

geofact · artifactual · biofact · build artifact · microartifact · artifacted · ecofact · cryoartifact · artifacting

Hypernyms

entity · object · item

Hyponyms

stationery · furniture · artwork · building · shoe · vehicle · device · invention · weapon · tool · jewelry · instrument · clothing · toiletry

Meronyms

material

Synonyms

artefact · artifact

Translations (96)

mk артефакт (archaeological object) · sv artefakt (something viewed as a product of human conception) · de Artefakt (object made or shaped by human hand) · fi artefakti (something viewed as a product of human conception) · cs artefakt (archaeological object) · fi teennös (object made or shaped by human hand) · nl artefact (archaeological object) · fi häiriö (artificial feature) · ru артефа́кт (archaeological object) · it artefatto (object made or shaped by human hand) · hu műtárgy (object made or shaped by human hand) · cmn 人工製品 /人工制品 (object made or shaped by human hand) · el τέχνημα (something viewed as a product of human conception) · fr construction (artificial feature) · tr insan yapımı (object made or shaped by human hand) · fi artefakti (archaeological object) · es artefacto (archaeological object) · es artefacto (object made or shaped by human hand) · ms artifak (archaeological object) · fi väärä löydös (artificial feature) · fi artefakti (object made or shaped by human hand) · ko 인공물 (archaeological object) · sv artefakt (artificial feature) · sl artefakt (object made or shaped by human hand) · ga déantán (object made or shaped by human hand) · pl artefakt (archaeological object) · pt artefacto (object made or shaped by human hand) · lv artefakts (object made or shaped by human hand) · ka არტეფაქტი (artificial feature) · nl mensenwerk (something viewed as a product of human conception) · pl wytwór (object made or shaped by human hand) · el τεχνούργημα (object made or shaped by human hand) · vi hiện vật (archaeological object) · ka არტეფაქტი (archaeological object) · pl artefakt (computing) · pt interferência (artificial feature) · id artefak (object made or shaped by human hand) · ru артефа́кт (object made or shaped by human hand) · hy գտածո (archaeological object) · es artefacto (something viewed as a product of human conception) · ja 遺物 (archaeological object) · fr artefact (object made or shaped by human hand) · no kulturgjenstand (archaeological object) · fr artefact (archaeological object) · fi tulos (something viewed as a product of human conception) · fi artefakti (biology) · pl artefakt (object made or shaped by human hand) · fr artéfact (object made or shaped by human hand) · pl artefakt (artificial feature) · nl artefact (object made or shaped by human hand) · fi museoesine (object in the collection of a museum) · pt artefato (object made or shaped by human hand) · vi hiện vật (object in the collection of a museum) · ga déantúsán (object made or shaped by human hand) · fr artefact (something viewed as a product of human conception) · sl artefakt (archaeological object) · ja 加工品 (object made or shaped by human hand) · de Artefakt (archaeological object) · fi artefakti (artificial feature) · pt produto (something viewed as a product of human conception) · fi esine (archaeological object) · pt artefacto (archaeological object) · ja 人工物 (object made or shaped by human hand) · ca artefacte (something viewed as a product of human conception) · fi esine (object made or shaped by human hand) · it manufatto (object made or shaped by human hand) · pt artefato (archaeological object) · sv artefakt (object made or shaped by human hand) · cs artefakt (object made or shaped by human hand) · ca artefacte (object made or shaped by human hand) · tr artefakt (object made or shaped by human hand) · ka არტეფაქტი (something viewed as a product of human conception) · hu lelet (archaeological object) · ko 인공물 (object made or shaped by human hand) · it prodotto (something viewed as a product of human conception) · pl artefakt (biology) · fr artéfact (archaeological object) · id artefak (archaeological object) · fi tuote (something viewed as a product of human conception) · ka არტეფაქტი (object made or shaped by human hand) · ca artefacte (artificial feature) · ja 工芸品 (object made or shaped by human hand) · id artefak (something viewed as a product of human conception) · el τέχνημα (archaeological object) · es artefacto (artificial feature) · eo artefakto (object made or shaped by human hand) · fi luomus (something viewed as a product of human conception) · pt artefato (biology) · cmn 手工藝品 /手工艺品 (archaeological object) · fi virhehavainto (artificial feature) · sv artefakt (archaeological object) · el τέχνημα (object made or shaped by human hand) · ca artefacte (archaeological object) · mk артефакт (object made or shaped by human hand) · id alat (something viewed as a product of human conception) · ja 埋蔵物 (archaeological object)