Objet d'art (plural objets d'art) means literally "art object", or work of art, in French, but in practice the term has long been reserved in English to describe works of art that are not paintings, large or medium-sized sculptures, prints or drawings. It therefore covers a wide range of works, usually small and three-dimensional, of high quality and finish in areas of the decorative arts, such as metalwork items, with or without enamel, small carvings, statuettes and plaquettes in any material, including engraved gems, hardstone carvings, ivory carvings including Japanese netsuke and similar items, non-utilitarian porcelain and glass, and a vast range of objects that would also be classed as antiques (or indeed antiquities), such as small clocks, watches, gold boxes, and sometimes textiles, especially tapestries. Books with fine bookbindings might be included. The term is somewhat flexible, and is often used as a broad term for "everything else" after major categories have been dealt with. Thus the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London describes its collection as follows: "The National Maritime Museum's collection of objet d’art comprises over 800 objects. These are mostly small decorative art items that fall outside the scope of the Museum’s ceramic, plate, textiles and glass collections." The items illustrated on their website (all with maritime associations) include metal curtain ties, a "lacquered papier-maché tray", tapestries, small boxes for tobacco, snuff, cosmetics and other purposes, cut-paper pictures (découpage), small silver items, miniature paintings, a "Gilt-brass clock finial", ceramic plaques, statuettes, cigarette boxes, plaquettes, a painted tray, a horse brass, a metal "pipe tamper", a small glass painting, a fan, a handle plate from furniture, and various other items. The term is used with the same meaning in French, but in that language it may sometimes be a synonym for "work of art", and has retained more respectability in the worlds of art history and museums than in English, where in recent decades it is often avoided (even more in archaeology), but remains in use in the world of collecting and the art and antique markets. In English it may be italicised as a foreign word, or not; either may be considered correct. Incorrect forms such as "objet-d'art", "object(s) d'art" are sometimes seen, and the term should not be capitalized in running prose.

A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an aesthetic physical item or artistic creation. Apart from "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature and music, these terms apply principally to tangible, portable forms of visual art:

• An example of fine art, such as a painting or sculpture
• An object that has been designed specifically for its aesthetic appeal, such as a piece of jewelry
• An object that has been designed for aesthetic appeal as well as functional purpose, as in interior design and much folk art 
• An object created for principally or entirely functional, religious or other non-aesthetic reasons which has come to be appreciated as art (often later, and/or by cultural outsiders)
• A non-ephemeral photograph, film or visual computer program, such as a video game or computer animation
• A work of installation art or conceptual art.

Used more broadly, the term is less commonly applied to:

• A fine work of architecture or landscape design
• A production of live performance, such as theater, ballet, opera, performance art, musical concert and other performing arts, and other ephemeral, non-tangible creations.