artificial

Definitions

1. 1.Feigned; fictitious; assumed; affected; not genuine. "Artificial tears." Shak.
2. 2.Artful; cunning; crafty. [Obs.] Shak.
3. 3.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 Linnæan 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, tangents, etc. Hutton.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Synonyms

Related questions

• What does "artificial" mean?
• What is another word for "artificial"?

Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is artificial.

• What is feigned; fictitious; assumed; affected; not genuine. "Artificial tears." Shak called?