DictionaryAI

artefact

noun
UKAH-ti-fakt/ˈɑːtɪfækt/AHR-ti-fakt/ˈɑɹtɪfækt/

Pluralartefacts

US spellingartifact

6 meanings of artefact

Practice

  1. 1
    historical objectnouncountable
    An old object made by people, such as a tool or a pot, that tells us about life in the past.

    They found a bronze artefact while digging near the old castle.

    Workers building the new road uncovered Anglo-Saxon artefacts in the mud.

    Similarfind, relic, antiquity

    Note
  2. 2
    man-made objectnouncountable
    Something made or shaped by people, such as a tool, a pot or a building, or sometimes by an animal.

    Every artefact in this room was made by hand.

    Chairs, cups and phones are all artefacts made by people.

    Similarobject, item

    Note
  3. 3
    media distortionnouncountable
    A fault you can see or hear in an image, video or sound, caused by shrinking the file, processing or interference.

    When I made the photo smaller, ugly artefacts appeared around the letters.

    A bright artefact showed up at the edge of the X-ray picture.

    Similardistortion

    Note
  4. 4
    product of ideasnouncountable
    Something that exists because people made it or thought of it, not because it is natural.

    Our idea of the weekend is an artefact of modern working life.

    Many rules at school are artefacts of how things were done long ago.

    UsageOften said as an artefact of something, naming what caused it.

    Similarproduct, construct, creation

    Note
  5. 5
    false resultnouncountable
    A result that comes from the way a test or study was done, not from the thing being studied.

    The strange pattern in the results was an artefact of a broken sensor.

    The scientists ran the test again to make sure the result was not an artefact.

    UsageOften an artefact of the test, or a statistical artefact.

    Note
  6. 6
    nouncountableabbreviationellipsis
    Short for build artifact: a file that is made when computer code is built, ready to be used.

    The build failed, so there was no artefact to test.

    We keep old artefacts so we can go back to an earlier version of the app.

    Note

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of artefact apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

From Latin words meaning "made by skill".

Checked 4 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

  • Artefact derives from Latin arte (‘by skill’) and factum (‘thing made’), together meaning ‘made by skill’. en.wiktionary.org