Entry Word: artificial

Function: adjective

Meaning: 1 lacking in natural or spontaneous quality <the beauty-pageant contestantsʼ artificial smiles looked like they were glued on their faces>

Synonyms affected, assumed, bogus, contrived, factitious, fake, false, feigned, forced, mechanical, mock, phony (also phoney), pretended, pseudo, put-on, sham, simulated, spurious, strained, unnatural

Related Words automatic, canned, concocted, fabricated, labored, manufactured, unauthentic, unreal, unrealistic; empty, facile, hollow, hypocritical, insincere, left-handed; exaggerated, histrionic, melodramatic, overacted, overdone, theatrical; cute, cutesy, goody-goody, mincing, overrefined, simpering; conventional, formal, impersonal, inflexible, rigid, stiff, stylized, wooden; artful, calculated, conscious, cultivated, deliberate, premeditated, studied

Near Antonyms authentic, bona fide, real, realistic, true; honest, ingenuous, sincere, unpretending; easy, effortless, smooth; extemporaneous, impromptu, impulsive, instinctive, unconscious, unprompted, unrehearsed

Antonyms artless, genuine, natural, spontaneous, unaffected, unfeigned, unforced

2 not being or expressing what one appears to be or express <the familiar sight of the award winner accepting the artificial congratulations of the other nominees> — see insincere
3 being such in appearance only and made with or manufactured from usually cheaper materials <artificial lemon flavor> — see imitation