Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An individual thing or element of a class; a particular object or item.
  • noun A particular section or item of a series in a written document, as in a contract, constitution, or treaty.
  • noun A nonfictional literary composition that forms an independent part of a publication, as of a newspaper or magazine.
  • noun The part of speech used to indicate nouns and to specify their application.
  • noun Any of the words belonging to this part of speech. In English, the indefinite articles are a and an and the definite article is the.
  • noun A particular part or subject; a specific matter or point.
  • transitive verb To bind by articles set forth in a contract, such as one of apprenticeship.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To state in detail; particularize; specify.
  • To accuse or charge by an exhibition of articles or accusations.
  • To bind by articles of covenant or stipulation: as, to article an apprentice.
  • To agree by articles; stipulate.
  • noun That part of the proceedings which corresponds to the charge in our English bill in chancery to set aside a deed. The answer is called articles approbatory.
  • noun A joint connecting two parts of the body.
  • noun One of the parts thus connected; a jointed segment or part.
  • noun In botany, the name formerly given to that part of a stalk or stem which is between two joints.
  • noun A separate member or portion of anything. In particular— A clause, item, point, or particular in a contract, treaty, or other formal agreement; a condition or stipulation in a contract or bargain: as, articles of association; articles of apprenticeship.
  • noun A distinct proposition in a connected series; one of the particulars constituting a system: as, the Thirty-nine Articles; the articles of religion.
  • noun A separate clause or provision of a statute: as, the act of the six articles (see below).
  • noun A distinct charge or count: as, articles of impeachment.
  • noun A distinct item in an account or a list.
  • noun One of a series of regulations: as, the articles of war.
  • noun A literary composition on a specific topic, forming an independent portion of a book or literary publication, especially of a newspaper, magazine, review, or other periodical: as, an article on war, or on earthquakes and their causes.
  • noun A material thing as part of a class, or, absolutely, a particular substance or commodity: as, an article of merchandise; an article of clothing; salt is a necessary article.
  • noun A particular immaterial thing; a matter.
  • noun A concern; a piece of business; a subject. A point or nick of time joining two successive periods; a juncture; a moment; the moment or very moment.
  • noun The number 10, or any number ending in a cipher.
  • noun In grammar, a word used attributively to limit the application of a noun to one individual or set of individuals, and also to indicate whether the noun used signifies indefinitely one or any one of the class which it names, or definitely a specific object of thought.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb rare To agree by articles; to stipulate; to bargain; to covenant.
  • transitive verb To formulate in articles; to set forth in distinct particulars.
  • transitive verb To accuse or charge by an exhibition of articles.
  • transitive verb To bind by articles of covenant or stipulation.
  • noun A distinct portion of an instrument, discourse, literary work, or any other writing, consisting of two or more particulars, or treating of various topics. Hence: A clause in a contract, system of regulations, treaty, or the like; a term, condition, or stipulation in a contract; a concise statement.
  • noun A literary composition, forming an independent portion of a magazine, newspaper, or cyclopedia.
  • noun obsolete Subject; matter; concern; distinct.
  • noun A distinct part.
  • noun A particular one of various things
  • noun Obs. or Archaic Precise point of time; moment.
  • noun (Gram.) One of the three words, a, an, the, used before nouns to limit or define their application. A (or an) is called the indefinite article, the the definite article.
  • noun (Zoöl.) One of the segments of an articulated appendage.
  • noun the compact which was first made by the original thirteen States of the United States. They were adopted March 1, 1781, and remained the supreme law until March, 1789.
  • noun an instrument which, in cases of impeachment, performs the same office which an indictment does in a common criminal case.
  • noun rules and regulations, fixed by law, for the better government of the army.
  • noun at the moment of death; in the dying struggle.
  • noun (Scot. Hist.) a standing committee of the Scottish Parliament to whom was intrusted the drafting and preparation of the acts, or bills for laws.
  • noun statements (thirty-nine in number) of the tenets held by the Church of England.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A part or segment of something joined to other parts, or, in combination, forming a structured set.
  • noun A story, report, or opinion piece in a newspaper, magazine, journal, internet etc.
  • noun A member of a group or class
  • noun An object.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin articulus, joint, article, diminutive of artus, joint (translation of Greek arthron, joint, article); see ar- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin articulus ("a joint, limb, member, part, division, the article in grammar, a point of time"); prop. diminutive of artus ("a joint"), akin to Ancient Greek ἄρθρον (arthron, "joint, limb"), from root *ar ("to fit, join"); see arm, art, etc.

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Examples

  • An article is placed before a substantive to limit or determine its meaning; the articles are _a_, _an_, and _the_; _a_ or _an_ is called the _indefinite article_, because it does not point out any particular object: _the_ is called the _definite article_ because it determines what particular object is meant.

    A Week of Instruction and Amusement, or, Mrs. Harley's birthday present to her daughter : interspersed with short stories, outlines of sacred and prophane history, geography &c. Unknown

  • The title article calls for “retrenchment” in the “humanitarian missions” abroad that are consuming the country’s wealth, so as to arrest the American decline that is a major theme of international affairs discourse, usually accompanied by the corollary that power is shifting to the East, to China and maybe India.

    Noam Chomsky: "Losing" the World Noam Chomsky 2012

  • The title article calls for “retrenchment” in the “humanitarian missions” abroad that are consuming the country’s wealth, so as to arrest the American decline that is a major theme of international affairs discourse, usually accompanied by the corollary that power is shifting to the East, to China and maybe India.

    Noam Chomsky: "Losing" the World Noam Chomsky 2012

  • The title article calls for “retrenchment” in the “humanitarian missions” abroad that are consuming the country’s wealth, so as to arrest the American decline that is a major theme of international affairs discourse, usually accompanied by the corollary that power is shifting to the East, to China and maybe India.

    Noam Chomsky: "Losing" the World Noam Chomsky 2012

  • The title article calls for “retrenchment” in the “humanitarian missions” abroad that are consuming the country’s wealth, so as to arrest the American decline that is a major theme of international affairs discourse, usually accompanied by the corollary that power is shifting to the East, to China and maybe India.

    Noam Chomsky: "Losing" the World Noam Chomsky 2012

  • The title article calls for “retrenchment” in the “humanitarian missions” abroad that are consuming the country’s wealth, so as to arrest the American decline that is a major theme of international affairs discourse, usually accompanied by the corollary that power is shifting to the East, to China and maybe India.

    Noam Chomsky: "Losing" the World Noam Chomsky 2012

  • The Berlin article is about how liberal (and the best among us!) wind up illiberal.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Our Own Randy Barnett Talks to Prof. Glenn Reynolds (InstaPundit) About Whether ObamaCare Is Constitutional 2010

  • The title article calls for “retrenchment” in the “humanitarian missions” abroad that are consuming the country’s wealth, so as to arrest the American decline that is a major theme of international affairs discourse, usually accompanied by the corollary that power is shifting to the East, to China and maybe India.

    Noam Chomsky: "Losing" the World Noam Chomsky 2012

  • The title article calls for “retrenchment” in the “humanitarian missions” abroad that are consuming the country’s wealth, so as to arrest the American decline that is a major theme of international affairs discourse, usually accompanied by the corollary that power is shifting to the East, to China and maybe India.

    Noam Chomsky: "Losing" the World Noam Chomsky 2012

  • The title article calls for “retrenchment” in the “humanitarian missions” abroad that are consuming the country’s wealth, so as to arrest the American decline that is a major theme of international affairs discourse, usually accompanied by the corollary that power is shifting to the East, to China and maybe India.

    Noam Chomsky: "Losing" the World Noam Chomsky 2012

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