人工(じんこう)

じんこう
noun, pre-noun adjectival
artificial, man-made
descriptive
See also: 人口(じんこう) (population)
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(じんこう)知能(ちのう)の研究(けんきゅう)が進(すす)んでいる。
Research on artificial intelligence is advancing.
この湖(みずうみ)は人工(じんこう)のものだ。
This lake is man-made.
Photographs of Earth were taken from an artificial satellite.

Not to be confused with the homophone 人口(じんこう) (population), which uses a different second kanji. 人工(じんこう) uses 工(こう) (craft, construction), while 人口(じんこう) uses 口(こう) (mouth, people). Often functions as a prefix in compound nouns.

Compounds

  • 人工(じんこう)知能(ちのう) (artificial intelligence, AI)
  • 人工(じんこう)衛星(えいせい) (artificial satellite)
  • 人工(じんこう)呼吸(こきゅう) (artificial respiration)
  • 人工(じんこう)芝(しば) (artificial turf)
  • 人工(じんこう)甘味料(かんみりょう) (artificial sweetener)
  • 人工(じんこう)的(てき) (artificial — as a na-adjective)