Adjacent Words

Artificial definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ARTIFI'CIAL, a.
1. Made or contrived by art, or by human skill and labor, in opposition to natural; as artificial heat or light; an artificial magnet.
2. Feigned, fictitious; not genuine or natural; as artificial tears.
3. Contrived with skill or art.
4. Cultivated; not indigenous; not being of spontaneous growth; as artificial grasses.
Artificial arguments, in rhetoric, are arguments invented by the speaker, in distinction from laws, authorities and the like, which are called inartificial arguments of proofs.
Artificial lines, on a sector or scale, are lines 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, the same with logarithms.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: contrived by art rather than nature; "artificial flowers"; "artificial flavoring"; "an artificial diamond"; "artificial fibers"; "artificial sweeteners" [syn: artificial, unreal] [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" [syn: artificial, contrived, hokey, stilted]
3: not arising from natural growth or characterized by vital processes

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 14th century 1. humanly contrived often on a natural model ; man-made <an artificial limb> <artificial diamonds> 2. a. having existence in legal, economic, or political theory b. caused or produced by a human and especially social or political agency <an artificial price advantage> <artificial barriers of discrimination — R. C. Weaver> 3. obsolete artful, cunning 4. a. lacking in natural or spontaneous quality <an artificial smile> <an artificial excitement> b. imitation, sham <artificial flavor> 5. based on differential morphological characters not necessarily indicative of natural relationships <an artificial key for plant identification> • artificiality noun • artificially adverb • artificialness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 produced by human art or effort rather than originating naturally (an artificial lake). 2 formed in imitation of something natural (artificial flowers). 3 affected, insincere (an artificial smile). Phrases and idioms: artificial insemination the injection of semen into the vagina or uterus other than by sexual intercourse. artificial intelligence the application of computers to areas normally regarded as requiring human intelligence. artificial kidney an apparatus that performs the functions of the human kidney (outside the body), when one or both organs are damaged. artificial respiration the restoration or initiation of breathing by manual or mechanical or mouth-to-mouth methods. artificial silk rayon. Derivatives: artificiality n. artificially adv. Etymology: ME f. OF artificiel or L artificialis (as ARTIFICE, -AL)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Person Per"son, n. [OE. persone, persoun, person, parson, OF. persone, F. personne, L. persona a mask (used by actors), a personage, part, a person, fr. personare to sound through; per + sonare to sound. See Per-, and cf. Parson.] 1. A character or part, as in a play; a specific kind or manifestation of individual character, whether in real life, or in literary or dramatic representation; an assumed character. [Archaic] His first appearance upon the stage in his new person of a sycophant or juggler. --Bacon. No man can long put on a person and act a part. --Jer. Taylor. To bear rule, which was thy part And person, hadst thou known thyself aright. --Milton. How different is the same man from himself, as he sustains the person of a magistrate and that of a friend! --South. 2. The bodily form of a human being; body; outward appearance; as, of comely person. A fair persone, and strong, and young of age. --Chaucer. If it assume my noble father's person. --Shak. Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined. --Milton. 3. A living, self-conscious being, as distinct from an animal or a thing; a moral agent; a human being; a man, woman, or child. Consider what person stands for; which, I think, is a thinking, intelligent being, that has reason and reflection. --Locke. 4. A human being spoken of indefinitely; one; a man; as, any person present. 5. A parson; the parish priest. [Obs.] --Chaucer. 6. (Theol.) Among Trinitarians, one of the three subdivisions of the Godhead (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost); an hypostasis. ``Three persons and one God.'' --Bk. of Com. Prayer. 7. (Gram.) One of three relations or conditions (that of speaking, that of being spoken to, and that of being spoken of) pertaining to a noun or a pronoun, and thence also to the verb of which it may be the subject. Note: A noun or pronoun, when representing the speaker, is said to be in the first person; when representing what is spoken to, in the second person; when representing what is spoken of, in the third person. 8. (Biol.) A shoot or bud of a plant; a polyp or zooid of the compound Hydrozoa Anthozoa, etc.; also, an individual, in the narrowest sense, among the higher animals. --Haeckel. True corms, composed of united person[ae] . . . usually arise by gemmation, . . . yet in sponges and corals occasionally by fusion of several originally distinct persons. --Encyc. Brit. Artificial, or Fictitious, person (Law), a corporation or body politic. --blackstone.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Tangent Tan"gent, n. [L. tangens, -entis, p. pr. of tangere to touch; akin to Gr. ? having seized: cf. F. tangente. Cf. Attain, Contaminate, Contingent, Entire, Tact, Taste, Tax, v. t.] (Geom.) A tangent line curve, or surface; specifically, that portion of the straight line tangent to a curve that is between the point of tangency and a given line, the given line being, for example, the axis of abscissas, or a radius of a circle produced. See Trigonometrical function, under Function. Artificial, or Logarithmic, tangent, the logarithm of the natural tangent of an arc. Natural tangent, a decimal expressing the length of the tangent of an arc, the radius being reckoned unity. Tangent galvanometer (Elec.), a form of galvanometer having a circular coil and a short needle, in which the tangent of the angle of deflection of the needle is proportional to the strength of the current. Tangent of an angle, the natural tangent of the arc subtending or measuring the angle. Tangent of an arc, a right line, as ta, touching the arc of a circle at one extremity a, and terminated by a line ct, passing from the center through the other extremity o.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Artificial 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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. Artificial objects, materials, or processes do not occur naturally and are created by human beings, for example using science or technology. ...a wholefood diet free from artificial additives, colours and flavours... The city is dotted with small lakes, natural and artificial... = synthetic ? natural ADJ • artificially ...drugs which artificially reduce heart rate. ADV: usu ADV with v, also ADV adj 2. An artificial state or situation exists only because someone has created it, and therefore often seems unnatural or unnecessary. Removed from the artificial atmosphere of the fashion show, high-fashion clothes often look cheap and silly. ADJ: usu ADJ n • artificially ...state subsidies that have kept retail prices artificially low. ADV: ADV adj, ADV with v 3. If you describe someone or their behaviour as artificial, you disapprove of them because they pretend to have attitudes and feelings which they do not really have. The voice was patronizing and affected, the accent artificial. ADJ [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Factitious, made by art, not natural. 2. Fictitious, feigned, counterfeit, counterfeited, sham, spurious. 3. Assumed, affected, forced, strained.

Moby Thesaurus

Gongoresque, Gongoristic, Marinistic, affected, apocryphal, assumed, bastard, bogus, brummagem, colorable, colored, concocted, contrived, counterfeit, counterfeited, cute, distorted, dressed up, dummy, elaborate, elaborated, embellished, embroidered, ersatz, euphuistic, fabricated, factitious, fake, faked, false, falsified, fashioned, feigned, fictitious, fictive, forced, garbled, goody-goody, high-sounding, histrionic, hollow, hyperelegant, illegitimate, imitation, insincere, junky, la-di-da, labored, made, made-up, make-believe, man-made, maniere, mannered, manufactured, meretricious, mincing, mock, overacted, overdone, overelaborate, overelegant, overnice, overrefined, painted, papier-mache, perverted, phony, pinchbeck, plastic, precieuse, precieux, precious, pretend, pretended, pretentious, pseudo, put-on, quaint, quasi, queer, self-styled, sham, shoddy, simpering, simulated, so-called, soi-disant, spurious, stagy, studied, substitute, supposititious, synthetic, theatrical, tin, tinsel, titivated, twisted, unauthentic, ungenuine, unnatural, unreal, warped