artifact

American  

[ahr-tuh-fakt] / ˈɑr təˌfækt /

especially British, artefact

noun

• artifacts
  plural

1. any object made by human beings, especially with a view to subsequent use.

2. a handmade object, as a tool, or the remains of one, as a shard of pottery, characteristic of an earlier time or cultural stage, especially such an object found at an archaeological excavation.

3. any mass-produced, usually inexpensive object reflecting contemporary society or popular culture.

   artifacts of the pop rock generation.

4. a substance or structure not naturally present in the matter being observed but formed by artificial means, as during preparation of a microscope slide.

5. a spurious observation or result arising from preparatory or investigative procedures.

6. any feature that is not naturally present but is a product of an extrinsic agent, method, or the like.

   statistical artifacts that make the inflation rate seem greater than it is.

7. Digital Technology. a visible or audible anomaly introduced in the processing or transmission of digital data: Ghosting artifacts in an MRI are usually the result of patient movement during a scan.

   Your computer might need a new graphics card if you see green pixels where you should not, or other graphics artifacts.

   Ghosting artifacts in an MRI are usually the result of patient movement during a scan.

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verb (used with object)

1. Digital Technology. to introduce a visible or audible anomaly in (an image or audio file) during the processing or transmission of digital data: The video appears to be heavily artifacted.

   Compression may artifact your recording with clicking or echoing sounds.

   The video appears to be heavily artifacted.

artifact British  

/ ˈɑːtɪˌfækt /

noun

1. a variant spelling of artefact

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artifact Scientific  

/ är′tə-făkt′ /

1. An object produced or shaped by human craft, especially a tool, weapon, or ornament of archaeological or historical interest.

2. An artificial product or effect observed in a natural system, especially one introduced by the technology used in scientific investigation or by experimental error.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• artifactual
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• artifacts
  plural

Etymology

Origin of artifact

First recorded in 1815–25; variant of artefact (a spelling first recorded in 1625–50 ) from Latin phrase arte factum “(something) made with skill.” See art ¹, fact

Explanation

An artifact is a man-made object that has some kind of cultural significance. If you find a 12th-century vase, it's an artifact of that time. Don't drop it! Artifact is a combination of two Latin words, arte, meaning "by skill" and factum which means "to make." Usually when you use the word artifact, you are describing something crafted that was used for a particular purpose during a much earlier time.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

artifact artifacts

It burrows deep into the legal past in search of an artifact that will indisputably resolve a difficult issue—even though 21st-century English speakers can read our Constitution without difficulty.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

Conducted this week by correspondent Eric Cortellessa and top editor Sam Jacobs, the 11,000-word interview is in some ways an unremarkable artifact of the president’s usual tics: run-on sentences, bluster, insults, lies.

From Slate ● Oct. 2, 2026

The wide spread may have been a lingering artifact of the Eurozone debt crisis that followed the financial crisis, but either way, it has started to widen.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026

By combining the observations and tracking how the object moved over time, the team determined that it behaved much more like a planet orbiting the star than an imaging artifact or a distant background star.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026

With each new artifact discovered, Peter Throckmorton’s bond with those who sailed on that vessel more than three thousand years before strengthened.

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler

Newer generative AI systems can create footage that lacks many of the obvious artifacts associated with earlier deepfake technology, making them a more difficult target for detectors trained primarily on older forms of manipulation.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 1, 2026

In addition, the museum’s curators tended to be specialized in material culture — collecting and studying the museum’s several million objects and artifacts — rather than in conceptual storytelling.

From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2026

His molds, based on the form of a lion sculpture in the British Museum, delve into the politics of collecting and ponder what is lost when cultural artifacts are centralized in institutions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

The designer’s omnivorous view, influenced by ancient fossils, cutting-edge science and the natural world, is revealed in a show at the Brooklyn Museum that juxtaposes her couture creations with museum artifacts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026

Each ship and the artifacts it carried tell a story of the people who made and used them and what life was like at the moment that vessel sank to the bottom.

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler

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