artifact vs thing

artifact

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

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

  • 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. 

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

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

  • 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. 

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

thing

noun
  • An individual object or distinct entity. 

  • A public assembly or judicial council in a Germanic country. 

  • A unit or container, usually containing edible goods. 

  • A problem, dilemma, or complicating factor. 

  • Corporeal object. 

  • That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept. 

  • A romantic relationship. 

  • Alternate form of ting. 

  • One's typical routine, habits, or manner. (Used in possessive constructions.) 

  • Used after a noun to refer dismissively to the situation surrounding the noun's referent. 

  • A genuine concept, entity or phenomenon; something that actually exists (often contrary to expectation or belief). 

  • That which is favoured; personal preference. (Used in possessive constructions.) 

  • A living being or creature. 

  • A penis. 

  • Whatever can be owned. 

  • Girl; attractive woman. 

  • Clothes, possessions or equipment. 

  • That which matters; the crux. 

  • A romantic couple. 

  • A word, symbol, sign, or other referent that can be used to refer to any entity. 

verb
  • To express as a thing; to reify. 

How often have the words artifact and thing occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )