artifact

noun10

1. •
   An object made or shaped by human hand or labor.

   • Given increasing investment in an IT (information technology) artifact (i.e., online service website), it is becoming important to retain existing customers. — 2010
2. •
   An object made or shaped by some agent or intelligence, not necessarily of direct human origin.
3. •
   An 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.
4. •
   A powerful weapon, armor or another object, often with magical properties.
5. •
   Any object in the collection of a museum. May be used sensu stricto only for human-made objects, or may include ones that are not human-made.
6. •
   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.

   • The spot on his lung turned out to be an artifact of the X-ray process.
7. •
   An appearance or structure in protoplasm due to death, the method of preparation of specimens, or the use of reagents, and not present during life.
8. •
   A 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.
   • The opacity in his chest radiograph turned out to be an artifact due to the film.
9. •
   Something viewed as a product of human agency or conception rather than an inherent element.

   • The very act of looking at a naked model was an artifact of male supremacy. — 2004
10. •
    Ellipsis of build artifact.