manufactured

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of manufacture.

   The company manufactured diesel engines for over fifty years.

   All the components were manufactured to strict specifications.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty: the past tense (they manufactured engines) and the past participle, which follows have or be (the engines were manufactured). The verb's darker meaning comes along too, so evidence that was manufactured was fabricated, not turned out in a plant. Once the word takes more or most, as in a more manufactured sound, it has become the adjective, as in the "contrived" meaning.

2. 2
   adjective

   Made by humans or machinery rather than occurring in nature.

   Like a synthetic gem grown in a lab versus one mined from the earth.

   Manufactured housing can be assembled far more quickly than a traditional build.

   The product blends several manufactured ingredients with a few natural ones.

   Similarartificial, synthetic, man-made, prefabricated

   Oppositenatural

3. 3
   adjective

   Deliberately staged or contrived to seem real, rather than arising naturally or sincerely.

   Like a staged photo that pretends to capture a spontaneous moment.

   The scandal was a manufactured controversy designed to boost ratings.

   Critics dismissed the public outrage as entirely manufactured.

   Similarcontrived, staged, fabricated, artificial, fake

   Oppositegenuine, spontaneous, authentic

   Note

   Here the factory becomes a figure of speech. What is called manufactured was assembled to a plan, the way a product is, instead of growing on its own. A manufactured boy band was put together by others to sell, and manufactured outrage was produced for effect. Unlike the plain "man-made" meaning, this use carries a charge of insincerity, so it reads as criticism, not neutral description.

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