Other forms: articles
An article is one complete piece of writing in a newspaper, magazine or website. A newspaper article, write an article, read the article.
It has three other lives that a learner will meet. In grammar, the articles are a, an and the — definite and indefinite — and English articles are one of the hardest things about the language for speakers of Slavic and East Asian languages. In law, an article is a numbered clause of a treaty or constitution: Article 50, Article 8 of the Convention. And an article of clothing is a single garment, which is formal.
1nounarticleA piece of writing in a newspaper, magazine or website.
“The article ran to four thousand words and said very little.”
2noungrammarIn grammar, the words a, an and the.
“English articles are the hardest part for a great many learners.”
3nounnumberedA numbered clause of a legal document.
“It is set out in Article 12.”
4nounsingleA single item, especially of clothing.
“Every article of clothing was soaked.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
article is a piece of writing or a clause.
Latin articulus meant a small joint or limb, from artus, a joint — the same root as arthritis and art. An article is a small jointed piece of something larger, which suits a clause of a treaty and a piece in a newspaper equally well.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂er-
Latin
articulus — a joint, limb, member, part, division, the article in grammar, a point of time
Old French
article
Middle English
article
English, today
article
Built from
From Middle English article, from Old French article, from Latin articulus (“a joint, limb, member, part, division, the article in grammar, a point of time”), from Latin artus, from Proto-Indo-European h₂értus (“that which is fit together; juncture, ordering”), from the root h₂er- (“to join, fit (together)”). a doublet of articulus.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA