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Artifact vs Antique - What's the difference?

artifact | antique |

As nouns the difference between artifact and antique

is that artifact is an object made or shaped by human hand while antique is an old piece of furniture, household item, or other similar item.

As an adjective antique is

old, used especially of furniture and household items; out of date.

As a verb antique is

to shop for antiques; to search for antiques.

artifact

English

Alternative forms

* artefact

Noun

(en noun)
  • An object made or shaped by human hand.
  • (archaeology) An object, such as a tool, weapon or ornament, of archaeological or historical interest, especially such an object found at an archaeological excavation.
    • The dig produced many Roman artifacts .
  • Something viewed as a product of human conception or agency rather than an inherent element.
  • * "The very act of looking at a naked model was an artifact of male supremacy" (Philip Weiss).
  • A structure or finding 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.
  • An object made or shaped by some agent or intelligence, not necessarily of direct human origin.
  • (computing) A perceptible distortion that appears in a digital image, audio or video file as a result of applying a lossy compression algorithm.
    • This JPEG image has been so highly compressed that it has too many unsightly compression artifacts , making it unsuitable for the cover of our magazine.

    References

    * * "artefact" is the preferred spelling in Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary'', with ''artifact listed as a variant. * "artifact" is preferred by the Oxford English Dictionary and most American dictionaries.

    antique

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Old, used especially of furniture and household items; out of date.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
    • , title= , chapter=1 citation , passage=“There the cause of death was soon ascertained?; the victim of this daring outrage had been stabbed to death from ear to ear with a long, sharp instrument, in shape like an antique stiletto, which […] was subsequently found under the cushions of the hansom. […]”}}

    Related terms

    {{rel3, ancient , antic , antiquary , antiquarian , antiquated , antiquity}}

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An old piece of furniture, household item, or other similar item.
  • An old person.

    • Verb

    (antiqu)
  • (label) To shop for antiques; to search for antiques.
  • (label) To make an object appear to be an antique in some way.

    • External links

    * * English retronyms ----