Synthetic

Quick meaning: Synthetic is an adjective meaning Of, or relating to synthesis.

Meaning

Of, or relating to synthesis.

More Meanings

1. (chemistry) Produced by synthesis instead of being isolated from a natural source (but may be identical to a product so obtained).
2. (medicine) Produced by synthesis, thought to have the same effect as its natural counterpart, but chemically different from it.
3. Artificial, not genuine.
4. (grammar) Pertaining to the joining of bound morphemes in a word (compare analytic).
5. (linguistics) Of a language, having a grammar principally dependent on the use of bound morphemes to indicate syntactic relationships.
6. A synthetic compound.

Example Sentences

Only plastics and synthetics that cannot be recycled will end up in landfills, he said.

As the world's drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.

Word Forms

• synthetics

Synonyms for synthetic

Depending on context, synonyms include counterfeit, unreal, artificial, imitative, inflected, celluloid.

Antonyms for synthetic

Common opposites include analytical, analytic, uninflected.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include combining, celluloid, polysynthetic, imitative, inflectional, agglutinative.

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