Artifact

Definition: Artifact

Artifact

Noun

1. A man-made object taken as a whole.

Date "artifact" was first used: 1821. (references)

Etymology: Artifact \Ar"ti*fact\, noun. [Latin expression ars, artis, art facere, factum, to make.]. (Websters 1913)

Specialty Definition: Artifact

Domain	Definition
Electrical Engineering	The spurious effects or imperfections introduced into a signal as a result of digital signal processing. Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Artifact

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

An artifact or artefact is any object or process resulting from human activity. In a broader sense, it may be defined as anything created by any intelligent being, but at the moment our knowledge of intelligent beings consists of one example -- humanity. (Some ethologists, scientists who study animal behavior, may not agree with this assertion; nor would many UFO enthusiasts).

In an archaeological sense, an artifact is any object discarded or lost by a previous human culture, and later recovered by some archaeological endeavor. Prehistoric artifacts might include stone tools such as projectile points, ceramic sherds, or grinding slabs; historic artifacts include objects made of glass, metal, brick, concrete, mortar, ceramic, and the like.

In observational science and particularly signal processing, an artifact is any perceived distortion, error, or addition caused by the instrument of observation (signal processor). For example, a compression artifact is a noticeable error caused by lossy data compression of digital audio or video data. A similar usage applies in printing and graphic design, where an artifact is a visible blemish not present in the original image or plate.

In biological microscopy an artifact is any distortion or addition caused by the sample preparation process.

In role-playing games and fantasy literature, an artifact is a magicalal object with some marvelous and alarming power, so great that it cannot be duplicated by any known art allowed by the premises of the fantasy world, and cannot be destroyed by ordinary means. Artifacts often serve as MacGuffins, the central focus of quests to locate, capture, or destroy them. The One Ring of The Lord of the Rings is a typical artifact: alarmingly powerful, of ancient and obscure origin, and almost indestructible.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Artifact."

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Synonym: Artifact

Synonym: artefact (n). (additional references)

Antonym: natural object (n). (additional references)

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Crosswords: Artifact

English words defined with "artifact": abrading stone, Americana, anachronism, antiquity ♦ ceramic, cloth, component, cone, constituent, covering, creation, cushioning ♦ electroplate, element, enclosure, eolith ♦ fabric, flat solid, fragment, frame ♦ insert, inset, instrumentality, instrumentation ♦ lemon ♦ material ♦ padding, plaything, product, production ♦ safety feature, shard, sheet, sherd, skeleton, slip, sphere, square, squeaker, stinker, strip, surface ♦ textile, thing, toilet article, toiletries, toiletry, toy ♦ underframe ♦ way, weight. (references)

Specialty definitions using "artifact": AV delay, A-V interval, AV sequential asynchronous ♦ Collecting strategy, CONSERVATOR, ARTIFACTS ♦ Geographic Information System ♦ lorettoite ♦ preservationis ♦ Range of variation. (references)

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Modern Usage: Artifact

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	A Genuine Elvis artifact! (The Golden Girls; writing credit: Philip Broadley; Gabriel Castro)
Movie/TV Titles	Aiken's Artifact Sanity (2000)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Artifact

Domain	Title
Books	Archaeological Conservation Using Polymers: Practical Applications for Organic Artifact Stabilization (Texas A&m University Anthropology Series, 6) (reference) Artifact and Assemblage: The Finds from a Regional Survey of the Southern Argolid, Greece: The Prehistoric and Early Iron Age Pottery and the Lithi (reference) Artifact of Evil (Greyhawk Adventures Novels, Book 2) (reference) Artifact! Notebooks from Hell 1974-1980: Notebooks from Hell, 1974-80 (Hanuman Book No. 37) (reference) Between Universalism and Skepticism: Ethics As Social Artifact (reference) (more book examples)

Periodicals	Indian Artifact Magazine (reference) (more periodical examples)

Music	Artifact One (reference) Retrogroove Artifact (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

High Tech	Sanity: Aiken's Artifact (reference) Tomb Raider: The Lost Artifact (reference) (more camera examples; more video game examples; more computer examples; more electronic examples; more software examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Artifact

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Photo Album: Artifact

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Example of Gulf Stream thermal wedge Sounding artifact created by abrupt changes in water temperature Observed on EXPLORER. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection.		Detail of Gulf Stream thermal wedge Detail of Precision Depth Recorder record showing artifact Observed on EXPLORER. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection.
	This brass signal lantern was the first artifact recovered from the MONITOR. Credit: Sanctuaries.		Artifact collection storage. Credit: BLM Staff.
	Native American Artifact at NHOTIC. Credit: BLM Staff.		Fragment of the decorative woodwork from the ship's stern, recovered from Tripoli harbor and presented to the Naval Lyceum, Brooklyn, New York, on 10 February 1835 by Midshipman J.A. Underwood. The artifact was subsequently transferred to the U.S. Naval Academy Museum. Credit: NAVY.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Artifact

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		Cardiogenic artifact can be significant with transthoracic impedance monitors, and it also is seen to a lesser extent in other sensors of breathing. (references)
		The former often is related to cardiogenic artifact, a significant problem with impedance monitors, or to motion artifact resulting from active or passive infant movement. (references)
		This instrument should be evaluated further in this application, with special attention paid to the effect of signal processing on the measured signal and methods of minimizing motion artifact. (references)
Political Rights	Korea	Free elections do not exist, and the regime has criticized the concept of free elections and competition among political parties as an artifact of capitalist decay. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Artifact

"Artifact" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Artifact" is used about 37 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	37	56,631

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expressions: Artifact

Expressions using "artifact": interlaced artifact ♦ pacemaker artifact ♦ stimulus artifact. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Artifact

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
artifact	468	artifact mayan	15
indian artifact	314	aztec artifact	14
ancient artifact	285	arrowhead indian artifact	14
egyptian artifact	69	inca artifact	14
titanic artifact exhibit	67	art artifact catalog	13
art artifact	65	artifact horizon	12
titanic artifact	64	artifact international	11
native american artifact	51	artifact lost raider through tomb walk	11
civil war artifact	34	artifact biblical	11
african artifact	33	artifact mexican	10
artifact entertainment	32	cultural artifact	10
tomb raider lost artifact	31	alien artifact	10
artifact place	23	indian artifact sale	10
american indian artifact	23	artifact metroid prime	10
religious artifact	17	artifact flint	10
chinese artifact	16	artifact indian sc site	9
architectural artifact	16	ancient egyptian artifact	9
artifact cheat lost raider tomb	16	medieval artifact	9
artifact morrowind	16	the lost artifact	8
roman artifact	15	arrowhead artifact	8
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Artifact

Language		Translations for "artifact"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Arabic		‏من صنع انسان, ‏نتاج صنعي. (various references)

Bulgarian		артифакт (artefact), продукт (artefact, child, growth, increase, outgrowth, product, production), изработен от човешка ръка, изкуствено предизвикана промяна. (various references)

Chinese		人工制�"� (artefact). (various references)

Czech		artefakt. (various references)

Farsi		محصول مصنوعی , مصنوع (Made, Manufacture, Ornate). (various references)

French		artefact. (various references)

German		Werkzeug (agent, implement, instrument, kit, mean, means, tool, tool kit, utensil, utility). (various references)

Greek		τεχνούργημα. (various references)

Hebrew		חפץ ש� עש�" בי�"י א�"ם (artefact). (various references)

Hungarian		tárgyi lelet (artefact), műtermék (artefact), kezdetleges műalkotás (artefact). (various references)

Italian		artefatto (adulterated, artefact, artifical, artificial, simulated). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		アース線 (arch, arch dam, archery, artisan, artist, earthed line, groundwire, homerun). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		アーチファクト . (various references)

Korean		인공물 (artefact). (various references)

Pig Latin		artifactay

Portuguese		artefato (artefact). (various references)

Russian		артефакт (artefact). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		predmet za upotrebu, predmet od stare primitivne kulture. (various references)

Spanish		artefacto (appliance, artefact, contraption, device, engine, gadget). (various references)

Thai		วัตถุ (ที่เกิ�"จากฝีมือมนุษย์). (various references)

Turkish		yapay doku (artefact), insan eliyle yapılmış şey (artefact), ilk insanların yaptığı sanat eseri (artefact). (various references)

Ukrainian		артефакт (artefact). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Artifact

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	arte. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Artifact

Derivations
	Words beginning with "artifact": artifacts, artifactual. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Artifact" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aritfact, artafact, artiface, Iltifat. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Artifact"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "artifact" (pronounced Ä"rtufa'kt)
3	-a' k t	backtracked, contact, contract, counteract, hijacked, noncontract, overact, piggybacked, ransacked, sidetracked, subcontract.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Artifact

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-c-f-i-r-t-t"
	-2 letters: fracti.
	-3 letters: acari, afrit, atria, attar, attic, carat, craft, facia, farci, fritt, riata, tacit, tafia, tatar, tiara, tract, trait, triac.
	-4 letters: acta, afar, airt, aria, cart, fact, fair, fart, fiar, fiat, frat, frit, raft, raia, rift, tact, tart.
	-5 letters: act, aft, air, ait, arc, arf, art, att, car, cat, far, fat, fir, fit, rat.
	Words containing the letters "a-a-c-f-i-r-t-t"
	+1 letter: artifacts.
	+3 letters: artifactual, facilitator, fractionate.
	+4 letters: antiaircraft, facilitators, facilitatory, fractionated, fractionates, fractionator, ratification, satisfactory.
	+5 letters: abortifacient, anfractuosity, antiaircrafts, artificiality, factorization, fractionating, fractionation, fractionators, gratification, ratifications.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.