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synthetic. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
synthetic, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
synthetic in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
synthetic you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From French synthétique, from Ancient Greek συνθετικός (sunthetikós); Equivalent to synthesis + -ic (suffix formation of -tic).
Pronunciation
Adjective
synthetic (comparative more synthetic, superlative most synthetic)
- Of, or relating to synthesis.
- (chemistry) Produced by synthesis instead of being isolated from a natural source (but may be identical to a product so obtained).
2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848: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.
- (medicine) Produced by synthesis, thought to have the same effect as its natural counterpart, but chemically different from it.
- Artificial, not genuine.
- (grammar) Pertaining to the joining of bound morphemes in a word (compare analytic).
- (linguistics) Of a language, having a grammar principally dependent on the use of bound morphemes to indicate syntactic relationships (compare analytic).
Usage notes
- (Bio-)chemicals can be produced synthetically, but be chemically indistinguishable from to their counterparts found in nature. However, especially in medical contexts, synthetic is most often meant to denote molecules (active ingredients in drugs) that are chemically different from the natural substance on which they are based.
- Folic acid is the synthetic form of vitamin B9 (L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate).
Derived terms
Translations
of, or relating to synthesis
produced by chemical synthesis
pertaining to the joining of bound morphemes in a word
Translations to be checked
Noun
synthetic (plural synthetics)
- A synthetic compound.
2007 January 14, Elsa Brenner, “Art House to Get a Campus”, in New York Times:Only plastics and synthetics that cannot be recycled will end up in landfills, he said.