GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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Found 2 definitions 

  1.       

    Artificial , a. [L. artificialis, fr. artificium: cf. F. artificiel. See Artifice.]
    1.  Made or contrived by art; produced or modified by human skill and labor, in opposition to natural; as, artificial heat or light, gems, salts, minerals, fountains, flowers.
      1913 Webster
      Artificial strife
      Lives in these touches, livelier than life.
      Shak.

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    2. Feigned; fictitious; assumed; affected; not genuine. “Artificial tears.”
      Shak.

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    3. Artful; cunning; crafty. [Obs.]
      Shak.

      1913 Webster
    4. Cultivated; not indigenous; not of spontaneous growth; as, artificial grasses.
      Gibbon.

      1913 Webster
      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 classification (Science), an arrangement based on superficial characters, and not expressing the true natural relations species; as, “the artificial system” in botany, which is the same as the Linnæan system. -- Artificial horizon. See under Horizon. Artificial light, any light other than that which proceeds from the heavenly bodies. -- 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, etc. -- Artificial numbers, logarithms. -- Artificial person (Law). See under Person. -- Artificial sines, tangents, etc., the same as logarithms of the natural sines, tangents, etc. Hutton.
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  2.       

    Classification , n. [Cf. F. classification.] The act of forming into a class or classes; a distribution into groups, as classes, orders, families, etc., according to some common relations or affinities.
    1913 Webster
    Artificial classification. (Science) See under Artifitial.
    1913 Webster

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