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Artifact vs Facsimile - What's the difference?

artifact | facsimile |

As nouns the difference between artifact and facsimile

is that artifact is an object made or shaped by human hand while facsimile is a copy or reproduction.

As a verb facsimile is

to send via a facsimile machine; to fax.

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.

    facsimile

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A copy or reproduction.
  • * 1990 , James M. Thompson, Twentieth Century Theories of Art (page 540)
    • To paraphrase the critic of the Times, if one may make the facsimile of a human being out of bronze, why not the facsimile of a Brillo carton out of plywood?
  • A fax, a machine for making and sending copies of printed material and images via radio or telephone network.
  • The image sent by the machine itself.

    • Synonyms

    * (copy) autotype, copy, reproduction * (machine) facsimile machine, fax, fax machine * (copy made by a facsimile) facsimile reproduction, fax

    Verb

    (facsimil)
  • To send via a facsimile machine; to fax.

    • Synonyms

    * fax, telefax