synthetic

English

Etymology

From French synthétique, from Ancient Greek συνθετικός (sunthetikós); Equivalent to synthesis +‎ -ic (suffix formation of -tic).

Pronunciation

enPR: sĭnthĕt'ĭk, IPA^(key): /sɪnˈθɛtɪk/
Audio (US) (file)

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 they are based off of.
Folic acid is the synthetic form of vitamin B9 (L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate).

Derived terms

biosynthetic
chemosynthetic
electrosynthetic
geosynthetic
hemisynthetic
heterosynthetic
mechanosynthetic
metasynthetic
mutasynthetic
narcosynthetic
nucleosynthetic
oligosynthetic
osteosynthetic
parasynthetic
photosynthetic
polysynthetic
postsynthetic
presynthetic
proteosynthetic
psychosynthetic
pyrosynthetic
radiosynthetic
retrosynthetic
semisynthetic
synthetic air
synthetical
synthetically
synthetic biology
synthetic division
synthetic fiber
synthetic ice
synthetic ice skate
syntheticism
syntheticity
synthetic lethality
synthetic paper
synthetic philosophy
synthetic phonics
thermosynthetic
tomosynthetic

Translations

of, or relating to synthesis

Armenian: սինթետիկ (hy) (sintʿetik)
Belarusian: сінтэты́чны (sintetýčny)
Bulgarian: синтетичен (sintetičen)
Catalan: sintètic
Czech: syntetický (cs)
Dutch: synthetisch (nl)
French: synthétique (fr)
Galician: sintético
Greek: συνθετικός (el) (synthetikós)
Hungarian: szintetikus (hu)
Indonesian: sintetis (id)
Irish: sintéiseach
Italian: sintetico (it)
Polish: syntetyczny (pl)
Portuguese: sintético (pt)
Romanian: sintetic (ro)
Russian: синтети́ческий (ru) (sintɛtíčeskij)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: синтѐтичан
Roman: sintètičan (sh)
Tagalog: lagumlalangin
Ukrainian: синтети́чний (syntetýčnyj)

produced by chemical synthesis

Armenian: սինթետիկ (hy) (sintʿetik)
Belarusian: сінтэты́чны (sintetýčny)
Catalan: sintètic
Czech: syntetický (cs)
Dutch: synthetisch (nl)
Galician: sintético
Greek: συνθετικός (el) (synthetikós)
Hungarian: szintetikus (hu)
Indonesian: sintetis (id)
Italian: sintetico (it)
Polish: syntetyczny (pl)
Portuguese: sintético (pt)
Russian: синтети́ческий (ru) (sintɛtíčeskij)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: синтѐтичан
Roman: sintètičan (sh)
Tagalog: ginanggang
Ukrainian: синтети́чний (syntetýčnyj)

artificial, not genuine

Armenian: արհեստական (hy) (arhestakan)
Belarusian: сінтэты́чны (sintetýčny)
Bulgarian: изкуствен (bg) (izkustven)
Catalan: sintètic
Czech: umělý (cs), falešný (cs), strojený
Dutch: synthetisch (nl)
Galician: artificial, sintético
Greek: συνθετικός (el) (synthetikós)
Hindi: संश्लिष्ट (hi) (sanśliṣṭ)
Irish: tacair
Italian: sintetico (it)
Maori: horihori, parau
Norwegian:
Bokmål: syntetisk
Nynorsk: syntetisk
Polish: syntetyczny (pl), sztuczny (pl)
Portuguese: artificial (pt), sintético (pt)
Romanian: artificial (ro)
Russian: синтети́ческий (ru) (sintɛtíčeskij), иску́сственный (ru) (iskússtvennyj)
Scottish Gaelic: fuadain
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: у̀мјетан
Roman: ùmjetan (sh)
Spanish: sintético (es)
Tagalog: lagumlalangin
Ukrainian: синтети́чний (syntetýčnyj)

pertaining to the joining of bound morphemes in a word

Armenian: համադրական (hy) (hamadrakan), սինթետիկ (hy) (sintʿetik)
Belarusian: сінтэты́чны (sintetýčny)
Czech: syntetický (cs)
Galician: sintético
Hungarian: szintetikus (hu)
Portuguese: sintético (pt)
Russian: синтети́ческий (ru) (sintɛtíčeskij)
Ukrainian: синтети́чний (syntetýčnyj)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Bengali: ^{(please verify)} কৃত্রিম (bn) (kŕtrim)
Chinese:
Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 合成的 (zh) (héchéng de)
Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} sinteza
German: ^{(please verify)} synthetisch (de)
Ido: ^{(please verify)} sintezala (io)
Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 合成 (ja) (ごうせい, gōsei)
Khmer: ^{(please verify)} សំយោគ (km) (saŋyouk)
Spanish: ^{(please verify)} sintético (es)
Thai: ^{(please verify)} สังเคราะห์ (th) (săngkrór)
Turkish: ^{(please verify)} sentetik (tr)

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.