Dictionary:
synthetic(sĭn-thĕt'ĭk)![]() |
- Relating to, involving, or of the nature of synthesis.
- Chemistry. Produced by synthesis, especially not of natural origin.
- Not natural or genuine; artificial or contrived: “counterfeit rhetoric that flourishes when passions are synthetic” (George F. Will).
- Prepared or made artificially: synthetic leather. See synonyms at artificial.
- Linguistics. Relating to or being a language, such as Latin or Russian, that uses inflectional affixes to express syntactic relationships.
- Logic & Philosophy. Relating to or being a proposition that attributes to a subject a predicate not inherent in the subject and that does not result in a contradiction if negated.
A synthetic chemical compound or material.
[Greek sunthetikos, skilled in putting together, component, from sunthetos, combined, from suntithenai, to put together. See synthesis.]
synthetically syn·thet'i·cal·ly adv.


