Artefact (band)
WordNet

noun


(1)   A man-made object taken as a whole
WiktionaryText

Etymology


From + .

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.
 
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