computer-generated

IPA/kəmˌpjuːtə ˈdʒenəreɪtɪd/
KK[kəmpjˈutɚdʒˈɛnɚˌetəd]IPA/kəmˌpjuːtər ˈdʒenəreɪtɪd/

computer-generated — adjective

1. made by a computer program that follows instructions or processes data to create

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

made by a computer program that follows instructions or processes data to create images, sounds, or text

Example

The studio used computer-generated backgrounds for every scene in the film.

attributive: computer-generated + backgrounds

Amara's presentation included computer-generated charts that showed the sales data clearly.

Common collocations
  • computer-generated imagery
  • computer-generated graphics
  • computer-generated effects
  • computer-generated voice
  • computer-generated music
  • computer-generated animation
Synonyms
  • digital

    broader term; covers anything in electronic form, not necessarily created by a program

  • synthetic

    emphasizes artificial production; used for voices, images, and materials

  • algorithmic

    focuses on the rule-based process behind the generation

  • automated

    stresses that no human action was needed during the production

Antonyms
  • hand-drawn

    made by a person using traditional tools such as a pen or pencil

  • handmade

    created directly by human craft, without machine automation

  • manual

    done by a person rather than by a program or machine

Grammar Patterns

computer-generated + noun

Usage Note

Almost always used before a noun (attributive position). It rarely appears after a linking verb such as 'be' or 'seem'.

Common Mistakes

The generated-computer images looked real.
The computer-generated images looked real.
The word order is fixed: 'computer-generated,' never 'generated-computer.'

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Computer-generated describes output that a program creates from data or instructions. Digital is much broader — it covers anything stored or transmitted as electronic data, from a typed document to a scanned photo, regardless of whether software produced it. Synthetic focuses on the artificial nature of the result (synthetic speech, synthetic fabrics) and often carries the slight sense of being a substitute for something real. Algorithmic highlights the rule-based process — algorithmic trading or algorithmic recommendations — and is common in finance and tech, where the mechanism matters more than the output medium. Automated emphasizes the removal of human labour from a process; an automated email is sent by a system, but we would not call it computer-generated unless the text itself was composed by software. A computer-generated landscape in a film was never filmed in reality; a digital photograph of a real landscape was.

digital ↗synthetic ↗algorithmic ↗automated ↗

Common collocations

Adverbs

  • entirely computer-generated
  • fully computer-generated

Prepositions

  • computer-generated by

Etymology

LatinEnglish

Formed from 'computer' (from Latin computare, 'to calculate, count') and 'generated,' the past participle of 'generate' (from Latin generare, 'to bring forth, produce'). The term emerged in the mid-20th century alongside the development of electronic computers and became widely used in the 1980s and 1990s with the rise of computer-generated imagery (CGI) in film and television.