article

American  

[ahr-ti-kuhl] / ˈɑr tɪ kəl /

noun

• articles
  plural

1. a written composition in prose, usually nonfiction, on a specific topic, forming an independent part of a book or other publication, as a newspaper or magazine.

2. an individual object, member, or portion of a class; an item or particular: articles of clothing.

   an article of food;

   articles of clothing.

3. something of indefinite character or description.

   What is that article?

4. an item for sale; commodity.

5. Grammar. any member of a small class of words, or, as in Swedish or Romanian, affixes, found in certain languages, as English, French, and Arabic, that are linked to nouns and that typically have a grammatical function identifying the noun as a noun rather than describing it. In English the definite article is the, the indefinite article is a or an, and their force is generally to impart specificity to the noun or to single out the referent from the class named by the noun.

6. a clause, item, point, or particular in a contract, treaty, or other formal agreement; a condition or stipulation in a contract or bargain.

   The lawyers disagreed on the article covering plagiarism suits.

7. a separate clause or provision of a statute.

8. Slang. a person.

   Trust me, this guy's not just any article, he's Mr. Right.

9. Archaic. a subject or matter of interest, thought, business, etc.

10. Obsolete. a specific or critical point of time; juncture or moment.

    the article of death.

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verb (used with object)

articled, articling

1. to set forth in articles; charge or accuse specifically.

   They articled his alleged crimes.

2. to bind by articles of covenant or stipulation.

   to article an apprentice.

article British  

/ ˈɑːtɪkəl /

noun

1. one of a class of objects; item

   an article of clothing

2. an unspecified or previously named thing, esp a small object

   he put the article on the table

3. a distinct part of a subject or action

4. a written composition on a subject, often being one of several found in a magazine, newspaper, etc

5. grammar a kind of determiner, occurring in many languages including English, that lacks independent meaning but may serve to indicate the specificity of reference of the noun phrase with which it occurs See also definite article indefinite article

6. a clause or section in a written document such as a treaty, contract, statute, etc

7. formerly, undergoing training, according to the terms of a written contract, in the legal profession

8. (often capital) Christianity See article of faith Thirty-nine Articles

9. archaic a topic or subject

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verb

1. archaic to accuse

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• subarticle
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• articles
  plural

Etymology

Origin of article

First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English, from Anglo-French, Medieval Latin articulus “article of faith,” Latin: “joint, limb, member, clause, grammatical article,” equivalent to arti- (combining form of artus “joint”; akin to arthro-, arm ² ) + -culus diminutive ( see -cule ¹)

Explanation

A piece of non-fiction prose written for a publication is one kind of article. But a piece of a collection of something is also an article, like an article of clothing. If you're talking grammar, definite and indefinite articles are words, such as a, an, and the, whose purpose is to indicate, specify and limit a noun. An article of faith is something that is firmly believed. And an article of organization or incorporation is a section of a legal document that sets out rules for a company.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

article articles articled articling

I was literally drinking wine, thinking about the future, and I get a message from somebody who had read that article.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

A previous version of this article stated that McDonald’s has nearly 40,000 restaurants worldwide.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026

Snarky fisking — responding to an article line-by-line — gave way to the quiz boom, which was consumed by the personal essay before the long decade of short-form video.

From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026

Light has been used for decades for long-distance communications over optical fibre - the data for this article probably travelled down a fibre optic cable at some stage.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

I might write an article about these afternoons for the newspaper, but I’m a little scared to write something so personal.

From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga

There is no shortage of articles, books, and social content aimed at curbing what is framed as a lack of discipline, often with a focus on self-help or weight management.

From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026

Website articles, social media posts and column inches have been filled this week with the news that highly rated 15-year-old forward JJ Gabriel is on the verge of leaving Manchester United.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

In recent weeks, we scoured hundreds of articles from the Journal’s archives to trace that history—and show how the events of one 2001 morning continue to reverberate a quarter-century later.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

When I think of my creative direct report, I think of those articles about men in relationships who aren’t bad enough to break up with.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

They smuggled shortwave radios into the hills so they could listen to overseas reports, which they would transcribe into their articles.

From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly

An earlier version of this articled misidentified the president whom Michael Jordan skipped out on meeting.

From New York Times ● Jun. 4, 2018

After leaving school in 1944 to become articled to a firm of accountants, he continued with semi-professional "vent shows" several nights a week.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 20, 2013

Briefly Frank was articled to a Cheltenham estate agent, before joining the Stroud News as a local reporter in 1956.

From The Guardian ● Jan. 25, 2013

Son of a British actor, Herbert Marshall fitted himself, at St. Mary's College, to be an articled clerk.

From Time Magazine Archive

The law firm paid me a salary of two pounds per week, having generously waived the premium the articled clerks normally paid the firm.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

If we demur to a doctrine because we cannot fully and adequately comprehend it, is not this too familiar from a creature towards his Creator, and articling more strictly with Almighty God than becomes us?'

From The English Church in the Eighteenth Century by Charles J. (Charles John) Abbey

Fortunately he went on probation of three weeks before articling.

From Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 Sexual Inversion by Havelock Ellis

Related Words

• column
• commentary
• editorial
• essay
• feature
• item
• paper
• piece
• story