Brought about or caused by sociopolitical or other human-generated forces or influences: set up artificial barriers against women and minorities; an artificial economic boom.
Made in imitation of something natural; simulated: artificial teeth.
Not genuine or natural: an artificial smile.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin artificiālis, belonging to art, from artificium, craftsmanship; see artifice.]
Synonyms: These adjectives refer to what is made by humans rather than natural in origin. Artificial is broadest in meaning and connotation: an artificial sweetener; artificial flowers. Synthetic often implies the use of a chemical process to produce a substance that will look or function like the original, often with certain advantages: synthetic rubber; a synthetic fabric.
An ersatz product is a transparently inferior imitation: ersatz coffee; ersatz mink. Simulated often refers to a fabricated substitute or imitation of a costlier substance: simulated diamonds.
c.1382, "made by man" (opposite of natural), from O.Fr. artificial, from L. artificialis "of or belonging to art," from artificium (see artifice). Another early use was in the phrase artificial day "part of the day from sunrise to sunset" (c.1386). Artificial intelligence first attested 1956.
contrived by art rather than nature; "artificial flowers"; "artificial flavoring"; "an artificial diamond"; "artificial fibers"; "artificial sweeteners" [ant: natural]
2.
artificially formal; "that artificial humility that her husband hated"; "contrived coyness"; "a stilted letter of acknowledgment"; "when people try to correct their speech they develop a stilted pronunciation"
3.
not arising from natural growth or characterized by vital processes
Main Entry: ar·ti·fi·cial Pronunciation: "ärt-&-'fish-&l Function: adjective 1: humanly contrived often on a
natural model <an artificial limb> <an artificial eye> <an artificial heart> 2: based on differential morphological characters not
necessarily indicative of natural relationships <an artificial key for identification of a group of organisms> —ar·ti·fi·cial·ly/-'fish-(&-)lE/adverb
Main Entry: ar·ti·fi·cial Function: adjective 1 a: made by humans <artificial accessions> —compare NATURALb: caused or produced by a human and esp. social or political agency <an artificial price
advantage> 2: arising through operation of law —ar·ti·fi·cial·lyadverb
Ar`ti*fi"cial\, a. [L. artificialis, fr. artificium: cf. F. artificiel. See Artifice.]1. Made or contrived by art; produced or modified by human skill and labor, in opposition to natural; as, artificial heat or light, gems, salts, minerals, fountains, flowers. Artificial strife Lives in these touches, livelier than life. --Shak. 2. Feigned; fictitious; assumed; affected; not genuine. "Artificial tears." --Shak. 3. Artful; cunning; crafty. [Obs.] --Shak. 4. Cultivated; not indigenous; not of spontaneous growth; as, artificial grasses. --Gibbon. Artificial arguments (Rhet.), arguments invented by the speaker, in distinction from laws, authorities, and the like, which are called inartificial arguments or proofs. --Johnson. Artificial classification (Science), an arrangement based on superficial characters, and not expressing the true natural relations species; as, "the artificial system" in botany, which is the same as the Linn[ae]an system. Artificial horizon. See under Horizon. Artificial light, any light other than that which proceeds from the heavenly bodies. Artificial lines, lines on a sector or scale, so contrived as to represent the logarithmic sines and tangents, which, by the help of the line of numbers, solve, with tolerable exactness, questions in trigonometry, navigation, etc. Artificial numbers, logarithms. Artificial person (Law). See under Person. Artificial sines, tangents, etc., the same as logarithms of the natural sines, tangents, etc. --Hutton.
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