artifact

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   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.

2. 2
   noun

   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.

3. 3
   noun

   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.

4. 4
   noun

   An object, such as a tool, ornament, or weapon of archaeological or historical interest, especially such an object found at an archaeological excavation.

   The dig produced many Roman artifacts.

5. 5
   noun

   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.

6. 6
   noun

   a man-made object taken as a whole

7. 7
   noun

   An object made or shaped by some agent or intelligence, not necessarily of direct human origin.

8. 8
   noun

   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.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- Proto-Indo-European *h₂értis Proto-Italic *artis Latin ars Latin arte Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-der. Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁k-yé-ti 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”)).