made by human skill; produced by humans (opposed to natural ): artificial flowers.
imitation; simulated; sham: artificial vanilla flavoring.
lacking naturalness or spontaneity; forced; contrived; feigned: an artificial smile.
full of affectation; affected; stilted: artificial manners; artificial speech.
made without regard to the particular needs of a situation, person, etc.; imposed arbitrarily; unnatural: artificial rules for dormitory residents.
Biology. based on arbitrary, superficial characteristics rather than natural, organic relationships: an artificial system of classification.