accepted as real or true without proof; "an assumed increase in population"; "the assumed reason for his absence"; "assumptive beliefs"; "his loyalty was taken for granted"
adopted in order to deceive; "an assumed name"; "an assumed cheerfulness"; "a fictitious address"; "fictive sympathy"; "a pretended interest"; "a put-on childish voice"; "sham modesty"
taken as your right without justification; "was hearing evidence in an assumed capacity"; "Congress's arrogated powers over domains hitherto belonging to the states"
artificially formal; "that artificial humility that her husband hated"; "contrived coyness"; "a stilted letter of acknowledgment"; "when people try to correct their speech they develop a stilted pronunciation"
contrived by art rather than nature; "artificial flowers"; "artificial flavoring"; "an artificial diamond"; "artificial fibers"; "artificial sweeteners"
not arising from natural growth or characterized by vital processes
excessively elaborate or showily expressed; "a writer of empurpled literature"; "many purple passages"; "speech embellished with classical quotations"; "an over-embellished story of the fish that got away"
(computer science) a copy of a file or directory on a separate storage device; "he made a backup in case the original was accidentally damaged or erased"
an accumulation caused by clogging or a stoppage; "a traffic backup on the main street"; "he discovered a backup in the toilet"
a silvery malleable metallic element that resists corrosion; used in many alloys and to coat other metals to prevent corrosion; obtained chiefly from cassiterite where it occurs as tin oxide
prepare (a metal) for soldering or brazing by applying a thin layer of solder to the surface
the service (electric power or water or transportation) provided by a public utility; "the cost of utilities never decreases"; "all the utilities were lost after the hurricane"
a facility composed of one or more pieces of equipment connected to or part of a structure and designed to provide a service such as heat or electricity or water or sewage disposal; "the price of the house included all utilities"
the quality of being of practical use
a company that performs a public service; subject to government regulation
(economics) a measure that is to be maximized in any situation involving choice
drawing a comparison in order to show a similarity in some respect; "the operation of a computer presents and interesting analogy to the working of the brain"; "the models show by analogy how matter is built up"
an inference that if things agree in some respects they probably agree in others
lacking in reality or substance or genuineness; not corresponding to acknowledged facts or criteria; "ghosts and other unreal entities"; "unreal propaganda serving as news"
not actually such; being or seeming fanciful or imaginary; "this conversation is getting more and more unreal"; "the fantastically unreal world of government bureaucracy"; "the unreal world of advertising art"