artifact

Definition of artifactnext
1
as in fossil
an object made by humans and surviving from an earlier time period The site was full of Stone Age artifacts such as flint tools.

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2

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of artifact Several other important artifacts of Mexica origin that have been part of repatriation disputes are also currently housed at the Weltmuseum. — News Desk, Artforum, 12 Oct. 2026 The pump wagon’s relevance to Bowery culture will only be apparent in the exhibition’s final gallery, which is dominated by a comparable artifact, Brad Kalhammer’s installation Bowery Nation (1985–2012). — J. Hoberman, ARTnews.com, 9 Oct. 2026 Taco Terpstra, a professor of classics and history at Northwestern University, told Fox News Digital that the discovery offers an unusual opportunity to connect ancient artifacts with historical writings. — Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 9 Oct. 2026 Right on the touristy Promenade des Anglais, the Villa Masséna houses imperial artifacts—including Napoleon’s death mask and Empress Josephine’s diadem. — Hannah Jackson, Vogue, 8 Oct. 2026 See All Example Sentences for artifact
Recent Examples of Synonyms for artifact
Noun
  • To do this, the team of researchers used fossils and knowledge of mosasaurs' most recent living relatives – snakes and lizards like the komodo dragon – to recreate the hunting behavior of mosasaurs.
    — October 16, NPR, 16 Oct. 2026
  • The discovery provides a detailed view into how the dinosaur’s body responded to injury before its death and demonstrates how neutron imaging can reveal soft tissues that are rarely preserved in fossils.
    — Muskan Bhatia, Interesting Engineering, 16 Oct. 2026
Noun
  • Travel mementos in a private home A pocket museum doesn’t have to be open to the public.
    — Dina Cheney, Washington Post, 17 Oct. 2026
  • Meanwhile, greedy architecture fans stole blocks as mementos while the house was unoccupied.
    — Jack Flemming, Los Angeles Times, 8 Oct. 2026
Noun
  • Theranos is, in many ways, a cautionary tale and a relic of 2010s Silicon Valley.
    — Mary Randolph, Scientific American, 16 Oct. 2026
  • Our leaders should retire a relic that endangers people and animals alike, and retire, once and for all, the small and nasty politics used to defend it.
    — Al Sharpton, New York Daily News, 14 Oct. 2026
Noun
  • Christa Pike is a reminder that women can commit horrific crimes too.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 16 Oct. 2026
  • That openness is the best thing about Cooked, a record that summons electric Miles and Popol Vuh and the Necks but mostly explores endless emotional ambiguity, offering a reminder that very few sensations are ever pure.
    — Grayson Haver Currin, Pitchfork, 15 Oct. 2026
Noun
  • The scene was a modern echo of the old accommodation between gangsters and the state.
    — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
  • While many of the Middle East’s archaeological sites invoke pharaohs, Nabataeans, Romans, Islamic civilization, and Crusaders, the columns of Al-Rajajil are an echo of a prehistoric period wrapped in mystery.
    — Taylor Luck, Christian Science Monitor, 7 Oct. 2026
Noun
  • Those truths come together in a series of ands and buts, which layer upon and contradict each other, like the afterimages of Tullock in Stefania Bulbarella’s video design.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 16 Oct. 2025
  • That trailing effect isn’t a smear on its own, but their blades also leave afterimages, duplicate smears, along their path through space.
    — Eric Vilas-Boas, Vulture, 19 Aug. 2025
Noun
  • Over the past week, Iceland has explored that question not only through another conventional summit, but through a journey from remembrance to dialogue, and from dialogue to responsibility.
    — Halla Tómasdóttir, Time, 16 Oct. 2026
  • Flowers and candles were held Wednesday night in remembrance of a Reading, Massachusetts, mother who was allegedly murdered by her own son.
    — Tammy Mutasa, CBS News, 15 Oct. 2026
Noun
  • Coastal communities in Southern California began to experience dangerous conditions over Labor Day weekend with the remnants of Hurricane Marie.
    — Alicia Victoria Lozano, NBC news, 17 Oct. 2026
  • The remnants of Hurricane Isaias brought nearly 10 inches of rain to parts of North Carolina on Saturday, creating flash floods, landslides and tornados.
    — Mark Price, Charlotte Observer, 15 Oct. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Artifact.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/artifact. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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