对象(duì xiàng) - target, subject, partner in Mandarin

对象 (duì xiàng) is whatever an action is directed at. In formal writing it is the target group, the research subject or the intended audience: 服务对象, 研究对象, 读者对象. In that register it is dry and technical.

In everyday speech it means a steady romantic partner, the person you are seeing with marriage somewhere in view. 找对象 is to look for a partner, and 介绍对象 is what a relative does to you at a family dinner. It is warmer and more serious than 男朋友 or 女朋友, and it is used of either sex.

The trap is which meaning you have just triggered. Tell a colleague 我在找对象 and you have announced you are looking for a spouse, not a research cohort. If you mean an object in the grammatical or physical sense, use 宾语 for grammar and 东西 or 物体 for a thing.