man-made
Americanadjective
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produced, formed, or made by humans.
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produced artificially; not resulting from natural processes.
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Textiles.
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(of a fiber) manufactured synthetically from a cellulosic or noncellulosic base; produced chemically.
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(of a fabric or garment) constructed of synthetically made fibers.
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adjective
Etymology
Origin of man-made
First recorded in 1710–20
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“When you disconnect the stream from its floodplain and put it into a man-made channel, you lose all that habitat complexity, and you start to lose some of those species.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
McNish says virginity is a man-made myth created by those in power, in times that "also spoke positively of slavery and stoning".
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
Flames engulfed the world's largest tropical rainforest in 2024 when an unprecedented drought triggered the spread of fires, the majority of which were man-made.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
Connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, the man-made waterway handles around 40% of U.S. container traffic—amounting to roughly $270 billion annually—according to the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
The room is lit by moonlight, so it is hard to distinguish plant from tree from man-made structure.
From "Insurgent" by Veronica Roth
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
