Etymology

Noun

1. An object made or shaped by human hand.
2. An object, such as a tool, weapon or ornament, of archaeological or historical interest, especially such an object found at an archaeological excavation.

   The dig produced many Roman artifacts.

3. Something viewed as a product of human conception or agency rather than an inherent element.
   • "The very act of looking at a naked model was an artifact of male supremacy" (Philip Weiss).

   Ref: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 8 March 2007.

4. A structure or finding 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.

Dictionary notes

• artefact is the preferred spelling in Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary, with artifact listed as a variant.
• artifact is preferred by the Oxford English Dictionary and most American dictionaries.