Ăr′ti-fĭ′cial, a.
(-fish′al), a. [Pr. artificial, Fr. artificiel, Lat. artificialis, from artificium. See ARTIFICE.] 1. Made or contrived by art, or by human skill and labor, in opposition to natural; as, artificial heat or light; an artificial magnet; artificial gems, salts, or minerals. Artificial strife Lives in these touches, livelier than life. Shak.
- Hence, feigned; fictitious; not genuine. “Artificial tears.” Shak. “Too obviously artificial.” Macaulay.
- Artful; cunning; crafty. [Obs.]
- Cultivated; not indigenous; not being of spontaneous growth; as, artificial grasses. Gibbon.
Artificial arguments (Rhet.), arguments invented by the speaker, in distinction from laws, authorities, and the like, which are called inartificial arguments or proofs. Johnson.—Artificial lines, lines on a sector or scale, so contrived as to represent the logarithmic sines and tangents, which, by the help of the line of numbers, solve, with tolerable exactness, questions in trigonometry, navigation, &c.—Artificial numbers, logarithms.—Artificial sines, tangents, &c., the same as logarithms of the natural sines, tangents, &c. Hutton.—Artificial classification (Science), an arrangement based on characteristics of superficial importance, and not expressing the true natural relations of the species; as, “the artificial system” in botany, which is the same as the Linnæan system. Loudon. Dana.