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article—noun

1. a written composition in prose, usually nonfiction, on a specific topic, forming an independent part of a book or other publication, as a newspaper or magazine.
2. an individual object, member, or portion of a class; an item or particular: an article of food; articles of clothing.
3. something of indefinite character or description: What is that article?
4. an item for sale; commodity.
5. Grammar.any member of a small class of words, or, as in Swedish or Romanian, affixes, found in certain languages, as English, French, and Arabic, that are linked to nouns and that typically have a grammatical function identifying the noun as a noun rather than describing it. In English the definite article is the, the indefinite article is a or an, and their force is generally to impart specificity to the noun or to single out the referent from the class named by the noun.
6. a clause, item, point, or particular in a contract, treaty, or other formal agreement; a condition or stipulation in a contract or bargain: The lawyers disagreed on the article covering plagiarism suits.
7. a separate clause or provision of a statute.
8. Slang.a person.
9. Archaic.a subject or matter of interest, thought, business, etc.
10. Obsolete.a specific or critical point of time; juncture or moment: the article of death.

 

—verb (used with object), ar·ti·cled, ar·ti·cling.

11. to set forth in articles; charge or accuse specifically: They articled his alleged crimes.
12. to bind by articles of covenant or stipulation: to article an apprentice.

 

Origin: 1200–50; Middle English < Anglo-French, Medieval Latin articulus article of faith, Latin: joint, limb, member, clause, grammatical article, equivalent to arti- (combining form of artus joint; akin to arthro-, ) + -culus

—Related forms
sub·ar·ti·cle, noun