Prosthetic
adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An artificial replacement for part of the body; a prosthesis, prosthetic device.
- 2 An addition to an actor etc.'s body as part of a costume, intended to transform the person's appearance.
"The specialist makers of prosthetics are part chemist, part artist and part engineer. Each tends to specialise in a particular area, such as sculpting, mould making, foaming latex, knotting hair into the pieces, colouring or artworking."
- 1 Artificial, acting as a substitute for part of the body; relating to prosthesis. not-comparable
"prosthetic leg/arm"
- 2 Prothetic. not-comparable
- 1 relating to or serving as a prosthesis wordnet
- 2 of or relating to prosthetics wordnet
Example
More examples"The young man has only one leg, and even that is prosthetic. He must use crutches or a wheelchair to get around."
Etymology
From New Latin prostheticus, from Ancient Greek προσθετικός (prosthetikós, “adding; repletive; giving additional power”), from πρόσθεσις (prósthesis, “addition”), from προστίθημι (prostíthēmi, “I add”), from πρός (prós, “towards”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “I place”). By surface analysis, prosth- + -etic.
Related phrases
More for "prosthetic"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.