artificial vs sham

artificial

adj
  • Insincere; fake, forced, or feigned. 

  • Conveying some meaning other than the actual contents of one's hand. 

  • Not natural or normal: imposed arbitrarily or without regard to the specifics or normal circumstances of a person, a situation, etc. 

  • Man-made; made by humans; of artifice. 

sham

adj
  • Intended to deceive; false. 

  • mock 

  • counterfeit; unreal 

  • See also Thesaurus:fake 

verb
  • To obtrude by fraud or imposition. 

  • To deceive, cheat, lie. 

  • To assume the manner and character of; to imitate; to ape; to feign. 

noun
  • A decorative cover for a pillow. 

  • A false front, or removable ornamental covering. 

  • Trickery, hoaxing. 

  • A fake; an imitation that purports to be genuine. 

  • Champagne. 

How often have the words artificial and sham occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )