1. An individual thing or element of a class; a particular object or item: An article of clothing or articles of food.
2. Particular sections or items of a series in a written document: Contracts, constitutions, or treaties are examples of articles.
3. A nonfictional literary composition that forms an independent part of a publication: For example, articles are printed in newspapers and magazines.
4. In grammar, the part of speech used to indicate nouns and to specify their applications or 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". 5. Etymology: from about 1230, "separate parts of anything written", from Old French article, from Latin articulus, diminutive of artus "a joint".

The meaning was extended to "a small division", then generalized to "an item, a thing". Older senses were preserved in Articles of War or "military regulations" (1716) and Articles of Confederation (U.S. history).

The meaning of "literary composition in a journal, etc." (independent, but part of a larger work) was first recorded in 1712. The meaning of "pieces of property" (clothing, etc.) was first recorded in 1796.

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