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artificial - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English artificial (“man-made”) via Old French (modern French artificiel), from Latin artificiālis from artificium (“skill”), from artifex, from ars (“skill”), and -fex, from facere (“to make”). Displaced native Old English cræftlīċ.

artificial (comparative more artificial, superlative most artificial)

  1. Man-made; made by humans; of artifice.

    The flowers were artificial, and he thought them rather tacky.

    • 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist‎[1], volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):

      An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine. But they are nothing like as efficient, and can cause bleeding, clotting and infection—not to mention inconvenience for patients, who typically need to be hooked up to one three times a week for hours at a time.

  2. Insincere; fake, forced, or feigned.

    Her manner was somewhat artificial.

  3. Not natural or normal: imposed arbitrarily or without regard to the specifics or normal circumstances of a person, a situation, etc.

    • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 131:

      “How quickly have I fallen!” thought Tarzan; but in his heart he did not consider it a fall—rather, he pitied the poor creatures of Paris, penned up like prisoners in their silly clothes, and watched by policemen all their poor lives, that they might do nothing that was not entirely artificial and tiresome.

    • 1990 February 19, Peter Burnham, The Political Economy of Postwar Reconstruction, Springer, →ISBN, page 73:

      This results in an artificial conflation of the individual crises experienced by Western European states and leads to imprecise judgements on the impact of Marshall. This confusing conflation is not simply the product of retrospection.

    • 2002 May 9, Maxine Berg, Pat Hudson, Michael Sonenscher, Manufacture in Town and Country Before the Factory, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 35:

      [If] the economic literature of the eighteenth century is examined in terms other than the narrow categories of free trade and protection, the artificial division between the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries would break down .

    • 2016 November 10, Gabriele Lakomski, Scott Eacott, Colin W. Evers, Questioning Leadership: New directions for educational organisations, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 156:

      In Alberta, for example, policy documents reinforce an artificial distinction between leadership-related activity and management.

    • 2017 July 12, A. Javier Trevino, The Sociology of Law: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives, Routledge, →ISBN:

      The method of suppression is generally either an artificial conflation of public and private, in which the public is represented as private, or an artificial separation of public from private, which distracts attention from the public […]

  4. (taxonomy) Based on characteristics useful for identification, without regard for the formal differences used in classification.

    • 1966 October, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume I, New York, N.Y.; London: Columbia University Press, →OCLC, page 3:

      Artificial keys are devised purely to facilitate determination […]

  5. (bridge) Conveying some meaning other than the actual contents of one's hand.
    Synonym: conventional
    Antonym: natural

    • 1999, Edwin B. Kantar, Eddie Kantar Teaches Advanced Bridge Defense, page 191:

      An artificial bid doesn't necessarily show length in the suit being bid, it has an altogether different meaning.

    • 2008, David Galt, Teach Yourself Visually Bridge, page 219:

      North makes an artificial call of 3♧, the cheapest suit at the 3 level, to show a very poor hand. What North holds in clubs doesn't matter at all.

  • (antonym(s) of “unnatural”): natural

man-made

false, misleading

unnatural

based on characteristics useful for identification

Translations to be checked

Borrowed from Latin artificiālis.

artificial (plural artificials)

  1. artificial
  • “artificial”, in Aragonario, diccionario castellano–aragonés (in Spanish)

From Latin artificiālis.

  • IPA(key): /aɾtifiˈθjal/ [aɾ.t̪i.fiˈθjal]
  • Rhymes: -al
  • Syllabification: ar‧ti‧fi‧cial

artificial (epicene, plural artificiales)

  1. artificial

Borrowed from Latin artificiālis.

artificial m or f (masculine and feminine plural artificials)

  1. artificial
    Antonym: natural

Learned borrowing from Latin artificiālis.

  • IPA(key): (standard) /aɾtifiˈθjal/ [aɾ.t̪i.fiˈθjɑɫ]
  • IPA(key): (seseo) /aɾtifiˈsjal/ [aɾ.t̪i.fiˈsjɑɫ]
  • Rhymes: -al
  • Hyphenation: ar‧ti‧fi‧cial

artificial m or f (plural artificiais)

  1. artificial

From Latin artificiālis.

artificial m (feminine singular artificiala, masculine plural artificials, feminine plural artificialas)

  1. artificial

Learned borrowing from Latin artificiālis. By surface analysis, artifício +‎ -al.

  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /aʁ.t͡ʃi.fi.siˈaw/ [ah.t͡ʃi.fi.sɪˈaʊ̯], (faster pronunciation) /aʁ.t͡ʃi.fiˈsjaw/ [ah.t͡ʃi.fiˈsjaʊ̯]
    • (São Paulo) IPA(key): /aɾ.t͡ʃi.fi.siˈaw/ [aɾ.t͡ʃi.fi.sɪˈaʊ̯], (faster pronunciation) /aɾ.t͡ʃi.fiˈsjaw/ [aɾ.t͡ʃi.fiˈsjaʊ̯]
    • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA(key): /aʁ.t͡ʃi.fi.siˈaw/ [aχ.t͡ʃi.fi.sɪˈaʊ̯], (faster pronunciation) /aʁ.t͡ʃi.fiˈsjaw/ [aχ.t͡ʃi.fiˈsjaʊ̯]
    • (Caipira) IPA(key): /aɻ.t͡ʃi.fi.siˈaw/ [aɻ.t͡ʃi.fi.sɪˈaʊ̯], (faster pronunciation) /aɻ.t͡ʃi.fiˈsjaw/ [aɻ.t͡ʃi.fiˈsjaʊ̯]
  • (Portugal) IPA(key): /ɐɾ.ti.fiˈsjal/ [ɐɾ.ti.fiˈsjaɫ]
    • (Southern Portugal) IPA(key): /ɐɾ.ti.fiˈsja.li/

artificial m or f (plural artificiais)

  1. artificial (made by human hand)

Borrowed from French artificiel, from Latin artificialis. By surface analysis, artificiu +‎ -al.

  • IPA(key): /ar.ti.fi.t͡ʃiˈal/
  • Rhymes: -al
  • Hyphenation: ar‧ti‧fi‧ci‧al

artificial m or n (feminine singular artificială, masculine plural artificiali, feminine/neuter plural artificiale)

  1. artificial

Borrowed from Latin artificiālis.

artificial m or f (masculine and feminine plural artificiales)

  1. artificial
    Antonym: natural

    • 2024 December 2, Rosa Rahimi, “La palabra del año de Oxford es una condición moderna que nos resulta familiar a la mayoría de nosotros”, in CNN en Español‎[2]:

      La palabra superó a otras cinco candidatas preseleccionadas, que incluían “lore”, que significa un conjunto de (supuestos) hechos, información de fondo y anécdotas necesarias para comprender algo por completo; “romantasy”, un acrónimo para literatura que combina elementos de ficción romántica y fantasía; y “slop”, que se refiere a contenido de baja calidad generado por inteligencia artificial.

      The word beat out five other shortlisted candidates, including ‘lore’, which means a set of (supposed) facts, background information and anecdotes necessary to fully understand something; ‘romantasy’, an acronym for literature that combines elements of romantic fiction and fantasy; and ‘slop’, which refers to low-quality content generated by artificial intelligence.