Skip to content

artificiel

artificial

adjective ar-tee-fee-SYEL Rare
Descriptions & Qualities Quality

Origin: Latin artificialis, from ars (art) + facere (to make)

Also means

synthetic

Usage Note

Artificiel is the masculine form; the feminine is artificielle, with a doubled 'l'. Commonly contrasted with naturel in everyday speech — lumière artificielle (artificial light) vs. lumière naturelle. The word also carries a figurative sense of something forced or insincere, as in un sourire artificiel.

Examples

"Cette fleur est complètement artificielle."

Natural Translation

This flower is completely artificial.

Free starter pack

Building your French vocabulary?

Get the 100 most common French words as a free PDF — one email, no spam.

Explore French by topic