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PlainSpell

artifact

ar·ti·fact/ˈɑɹtɪfækt/noun

artifact is spelled A-R-T-I-F-A-C-T: 8 letters and 3 syllables (ar·ti·fact). It appears 2.6 times per million words in written English, the 16,896th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “artefact vs artifact” about 5,400 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, artifact means “An object made or shaped by human hand or labor” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of artifact is artifacts.

How many letters and syllables are in artifact?

Letters8: A-R-T-I-F-A-C-T
Syllables3: ar·ti·fact
In writing2.6 times per million words; the 16,896th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is artifact?

Artifact appears 2.6 times per million words in written English, the 16,896th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce artifact?

  • UK /ˈɑːtɪfækt/
  • US /ˈɑɹtɪfækt/
  • US [-ɾɪ-]

Artifact has 3 syllables, split ar·ti·fact in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-artifact.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with artifact

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

artefact vs artifact5,400 G

Also written: build artifact.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of artifact

  • artifacts plural
  • artefact UK

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does artifact mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    USAn object made or shaped by human hand or labor.

  2. 2

    USAn object made or shaped by some agent or intelligence, not necessarily of direct human origin.

  3. 3

    USSomething viewed as a product of human agency or conception rather than an inherent element.

  4. 4

    USA 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.

    The spot on his lung turned out to be an artifact of the X-ray process.

  5. 5

    USAn appearance or structure in protoplasm due to death, the method of preparation of specimens, or the use of reagents, and not present during life.

  6. 6

    USA perceptible distortion that appears in an audio or video file or an image as a result of applying a lossy compression or other inexact processing algorithm or of physical interference in an acquisition process.

    This JPEG image has been so highly compressed that it has unsightly artifacts, making it unsuitable for the cover of our magazine.

  7. 7

    USAn object, such as a tool, ornament, or weapon of archaeological or historical interest, especially such an object found at an archaeological excavation.

    The dig produced many Roman artifacts.

  8. 8

    USA powerful weapon, armor or another object, often with magical properties.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Artifact in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchartefact, artéfact (object made or shaped by human hand), construction (artificial feature)
GermanArtefakt (object made or shaped by human hand)
Portugueseartefato, artefacto (object made or shaped by human hand), interferência (artificial feature), produto (something viewed as a product of human…)
Spanishartefacto (object made or shaped by human hand)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does artifact come from?

Alteration of artefact, from Italian artefatto, from Latin arte (“by skill”) (ablative of ars (“art”)) + factum (“thing made”) (from facio (“to make, do”)).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after artifact