Definition of synthetic adjective from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

synthetic

adjective

/sɪnˈθetɪk/

artificial; made by combining chemical substances rather than being produced naturally by plants or animals synonym man-made
- synthetic drugs/fabrics
- shoes with synthetic soles
- synthetic dyes
- Even the hair is synthetic.
Synonyms artificial
artificialsynthetic ▪ false ▪ man-made ▪ fake ▪ imitationThese words all describe things that are not real, or not naturally produced or grown.
artificial made or produced to copy something natural; not real:
artificial flowers
artificial light
synthetic made by combining chemical substances rather than being produced naturally by plants or animals:
synthetic drugs
shoes with synthetic soles
false not natural:
false teeth
a false beard
man-made made by people; not natural:
man-made fibres such as nylon
fake made to look like something else; not real:
a fake-fur jacket
imitation [only before noun] made to look like something else; not real:
She would never wear imitation pearls.
Patterns
- artificial/synthetic/man-made fabrics/fibres/materials/products
- artificial/synthetic/fake/imitation fur/leather
- artificial/synthetic/false/fake/imitation diamonds/pearls
Topics Physics and chemistryc1

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(linguistics) (of languages) using changes to the ends of words rather than separate words to show the functions of words in a sentence compare agglutinative, analytic

Word Originlate 17th cent.: from French synthétique or modern Latin syntheticus, from Greek sunthetikos, based on suntithenai ‘place together’.

See synthetic in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee synthetic in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English

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