← Back to context

Comment by alberth

8 hours ago

Is “synthetic” the right word?

I thought they are “lab grown”.

(Synthetic implies non-real, when at a molecular level the lab grown are 100% real)

3 comments

alberth

Reply
yummybrainz  7 hours ago

I think synthetic ~ synthesized in this context, as opposed to "not real".

Sense 4a1 here, not 4c: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/synthetic

  • ZephyrP  6 hours ago

    Unrelated, but does anyone else find the adjacent (4b) definition of 'synthetic' to be unusually unusual, in a way few definitions in a dictionary are?

    Without anything redacted, definition 4b is "devised, arranged, or fabricated for special situations to imitate or replace usual realities"?