1.
artificial, man-made, synthetic
Made or produced by humans rather than occurring naturally. Used as a prefix or modifier for things created through human effort or technology.
人工知能の研究が進んでいる。
Research on artificial intelligence is advancing.
この湖は人工のものだ。
This lake is man-made.
人工衛星から地球の写真を撮影した。
Photographs of Earth were taken from an artificial satellite.
Not to be confused with the homophone 人口 (population), which uses a different second kanji. 人工 uses 工 (craft, construction), while 人口 uses 口 (mouth, people). Often functions as a prefix in compound nouns.
COMMON COMPOUNDS:
- 人工知能 (artificial intelligence, AI)
- 人工衛星 (artificial satellite)
- 人工呼吸 (artificial respiration)
- 人工芝 (artificial turf)
- 人工甘味料 (artificial sweetener)
- 人工的 (artificial — as a na-adjective)