To put it simply, artificial is anything that is made by man rather than Mother Nature. Synthetic is also something man-made, but it refers more specifically to chemical (or intellectual) synthesis. Thus an item carved from wood would be artificial, while a new type of artificially produced fuel would be synthetic.

Is synthetic natural or artificial?

Synthetic chemicals are made by humans using methods different than those nature uses, and these chemical structures may or may not be found in nature. This definition means a synthetic chemical can be made from a natural product (i.e. naturally derived).

Are synthetic things natural?

Synthetic materials are man-made and cannot be found in nature. Synthetic materials are things like plastic that can be created by combining different chemicals, or prepared compounds and substances, in a laboratory.