syn·thet·ic
(sĭn-thĕt́ĭk)
[Greek sunthetikos, skilled in putting together, component, from sunthetos, combined, from suntithenai, to put together; see synthesis.]
adjective
- 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.
noun
- A synthetic chemical compound or material.
derivatives
- syn·thet́i·cal·ly
- adverb
