artifact
noun
Simple meaning
A man-made object taken as a whole.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ahrtuhfaktSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɑɹtəfækt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A man-made object taken as a whole
An object made or shaped by human hand or labor.
archaeology
An object, such as a tool, ornament, or weapon of archaeological or historical interest, especially such an object found at an archaeological excavation.
An object made or shaped by some agent or intelligence, not necessarily of direct human origin.
Something viewed as a product of human agency or conception rather than an inherent element.
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.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A man-made object taken as a whole
Used this way, artifact is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use artifact
- “The dig produced many Roman artifacts.”noun
- “The spot on his lung turned out to be an artifact of the X-ray process.”noun
- “This JPEG image has been so highly compressed that it has unsightly compression artifacts, making it unsuitable for the cover of our magazine.”noun
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Man / object
Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “artifact” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.