synthetic
adjectivenounattested in dialogue
- //sɪnˈθɛtɪk//
Of, or relating to synthesis.
adjective
- 1
Of, or relating to synthesis.
- 2
Produced by synthesis instead of being isolated from a natural source (but may be identical to a product so obtained).
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.
- 3
Produced by synthesis, thought to have the same effect as its natural counterpart, but chemically different from it.
- 4
Artificial, not genuine.
- 5
Pertaining to the joining of bound morphemes in a word (compare analytic).
- 6
Of a language, having a grammar principally dependent on the use of bound morphemes to indicate syntactic relationships.
Etymology
From French synthétique, from Ancient Greek συνθετικός (sunthetikós); Equivalent to synthesis + -ic (suffix formation of -tic).
noun
- 1
A synthetic compound.
Only plastics and synthetics that cannot be recycled will end up in landfills, he said.
Forms
- plural
- synthetics
- comparative
- more synthetic
- superlative
- most synthetic