Artificial

How to spell artificial

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce artificial

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does artificial mean?

1. adjectiveMade or produced by human effort rather than occurring naturally; imitation rather than genuine.

Artificial in a sentence

• The drink was sweetened with an artificial flavouring rather than real fruit.

• Surgeons fitted him with an artificial hip after the accident.

Where does artificial come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin artificialis, meaning 'belonging to art or craft', which was built on artificium, a noun for skilled workmanship. That noun in turn came from artifex, a 'craftsman' or 'maker', formed from ars (genitive artis), meaning 'art' or 'skill', joined to facere, meaning 'to make' or 'to do'. So at its literal heart the word describes something made by human skill rather than occurring in nature. English took it in through Old French during the fourteenth century, and the modern sense of 'not genuine' or 'imitation' grew naturally from that original idea of something crafted by hand. The same facere root that gives the middle 'fic' also lurks inside everyday relatives like 'manufacture' and 'factory', which is a useful reminder that the spelling hinges on 'fic' followed by the soft '-cial' ending.

How the word is built

• arti- (from Latin ars, artis: art, skill)
• fic (from facere: to make)
• -ial (adjective suffix)