Fact vs. Artifact — What's the Difference?

A fact is an occurrence in the real world. The usual test for a statement of fact is verifiability—that is whether it can be demonstrated to correspond to experience.

An object produced or shaped by human craft, especially a tool, weapon, or ornament of archaeological or historical interest.

A thing that is known or proved to be true

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

Knowledge or information based on real occurrences

A phenomenon or feature not originally present or expected and caused by an interfering external agent, action, or process, as an unwanted feature in a microscopic specimen after fixation, in a digitally reproduced image, or in a digital audio recording.

Something demonstrated to exist or known to have existed

An inaccurate observation, effect, or result, especially one resulting from the technology used in scientific investigation or from experimental error

A real occurrence; an event

An object made or shaped by human hand or labor.

Something believed to be true or real

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

A thing that has been done, especially a crime

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

(Law) A conclusion drawn by a judge or jury from the evidence in a case

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.

Something actual as opposed to invented.

(archaeology) An object, such as a tool, ornament, or weapon of archaeological or historical interest, especially such an object found at an archaeological excavation.

Something which is real.

(biology) 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.

Something concrete used as a basis for further interpretation.

(computing) A perceptible distortion that appears in an audio or video file or a digital image as a result of applying a lossy compression or other inexact processing algorithm.

An objective consensus on a fundamental reality that has been agreed upon by a substantial number of experts.

(museology) 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.

Information about a particular subject, especially actual conditions and/or circumstances.

A product of human workmanship; - applied esp. to the simpler products of aboriginal art as distinguished from natural objects.

(databases) An individual value or measurement at the lowest level of granularity in a data warehouse.

Any product of human workmanship; - applied both to objects made for practical purposes as well as works of art. It is contrasted to natural object, i.e. anything produced by natural forces without the intervention of man.

(archaic) Action; the realm of action.

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

A wrongful or criminal deed.

An object, oservation, phenomenon, or result arising from hidden or unexpected causes extraneous to the subject of a study, and therefore spurious and having potential to lead one to an erroneous conclusion, or to invalidate the study. In experimental science, artifacts may arise due to inadvertant contamination of equipment, faulty experimental design or faulty analysis, or unexpected effects of agencies not known to affect the system under study.

(obsolete) A feat or meritorious deed.

A man-made object taken as a whole

Used before making a statement to introduce it as a trustworthy one.

A doing, making, or preparing.

An effect produced or achieved; anything done or that comes to pass; an act; an event; a circumstance.

Reality; actuality; truth; as, he, in fact, excelled all the rest; the fact is, he was beaten.

The assertion or statement of a thing done or existing; sometimes, even when false, improperly put, by a transfer of meaning, for the thing done, or supposed to be done; a thing supposed or asserted to be done; as, history abounds with false facts.

A piece of information about circumstances that exist or events that have occurred;

A statement or assertion of verified information about something that is the case or has happened;

An event known to have happened or something known to have existed;

A concept whose truth can be proved;