Artificially

How to spell artificially

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce artificially

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does artificially mean?

1. adverbIn a way that is produced or arranged by human effort rather than occurring naturally.

Artificially in a sentence

• The fruit was ripened artificially in a heated warehouse.

• The lake is fed artificially by pumps during the dry season.

Where does artificially come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This adverb traces back to the Latin artificialis, meaning 'belonging to art or craft', which was built on artificium, 'a skilled trade or workmanship'. That noun in turn combined ars, artis, meaning 'art' or 'skill', with facere, 'to make', so the literal sense was something produced by human craft rather than by nature. The word travelled into English through Old French during the late Middle Ages, first appearing as the adjective 'artificial' in the 1300s to describe things made by people. The adverb 'artificially' followed naturally by adding the familiar -ly ending. The same facere root sits inside many everyday words such as 'manufacture' and 'factory', and recognising that -fic comes from 'make' helps explain the soft 'sh' sound in the middle that the spelling does not obviously show.

How the word is built

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