natural en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- (General-American) audio
- năchʹ(ə)rəl
- /ˈnetʃ(ʊ)rəl/ (South-Asia)
- /ˈnatʃ(ʊ)rəl/ (South-Asia)
- /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹəl/
- /ˈnæt.(ə.)ɹəl/
- (US) audio
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English natural, borrowed from Old French natural, naturel, from Latin nātūrālis, from nātus, the perfect participle of nāscor (“be born”, verb). Displaced native Old English ġecynde. By surface analysis, natur(e) + -al.
Meanings
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Existing in nature. ▸ Existing in the nature of a person or thing; innate, not acquired or learned.
With strong natural sense, and rare force of will, he found himself, when first his mind began to open, a fatherless and motherless child, the chief of a great but depressed and disheartened party, and the heir to vast and indefinite pretensions, which excited the dread and aversion of the oligarchy then supreme in the United Provinces.
1858, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter VII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume II, Longman et al., page 419:A South African Uber driver is causing excitement with his impressive operatic singing but, however much natural talent you have, it is a long road to La Scala.
2019 July 10, Stephen Moss, “Could your cab driver really be the next Pavarotti?”, in The Guardian:The natural Love of Life gave me some inward Motions of Joy.
1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, (please specify |part=I to IV):
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Existing in nature. ▸ Normally associated with a particular person or thing; inherently related to the nature of a thing or creature.
The species will be under threat if its natural habitat is destroyed.
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Existing in nature. ▸ As expected; reasonable, normal; naturally arising from the given circumstances.
It's natural for business to be slow on Tuesdays.
His prison sentence was the natural consequence of a life of crime.
What can be more natural or more moving than the circumſtances in which he deſcribes the behaviour of thoſe women who had loſt their huſbands on this fatal day ?
1711 May 25, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, The Spectator, volume I, number 74, page 333:
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Existing in nature. ▸ Formed by nature; not manufactured or created by artificial processes.
The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.
2013 June 21, Karen McVeigh, “US rules human genes can't be patented”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 10:
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Existing in nature. ▸ Pertaining to death brought about by disease or old age, rather than by violence, accident etc.
She died of natural causes.
Cancer patient David Paterson, 81, was close to a natural death when he was suffocated by Heather Davidson, 54, in the bedroom of his care home in North Yorkshire on 11 February.
2015 June 5, The Guardian:
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Existing in nature. ▸ Having an innate ability to fill a given role or profession, or display a specified character.
Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.
1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
- Existing in nature. ▸ Designating a standard trigonometric function of an angle, as opposed to the logarithmic function.
- Existing in nature. ▸ Closed under submodules, direct sums, and injective hulls.
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Existing in nature. ▸ Neither sharp nor flat. Denoted ♮.
There's a wrong note here: it should be C natural instead of C sharp.
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Existing in nature. ▸ Containing no artificial or man-made additives; especially (of food) containing no colourings, flavourings or preservatives.
Natural food is healthier than processed food.
- Existing in nature. ▸ Pertaining to a decoration that preserves or enhances the appearance of the original material; not stained or artificially coloured.
- Existing in nature. ▸ Pertaining to a fabric still in its undyed state, or to the colour of undyed fabric.
- Existing in nature. ▸ Pertaining to a dice roll before bonuses or penalties have been applied to the result.
- Existing in nature. ▸ Not having used anabolic steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.
- Existing in nature. ▸ Uncircumcised; intact.
- Existing in nature. ▸ Bidding in an intuitive way that reflects one's actual hand.
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Pertaining to birth or descent; native. ▸ Having a given status (especially of authority) by virtue of birth.
Whom should he follow but his naturall king.
c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:I am thy creature, and I will be even mild and docile to my natural lord and king, if thou wilt also perform thy part, the which thou owest me.
1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC:
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Pertaining to birth or descent; native. ▸ Related genetically but not legally to one's father; born out of wedlock, illegitimate.
[M]y Mother was the natural Daughter of a Scotch Peer by an italian Opera-girl […].
1790, Jane Austen, “Love and Freindship”, in Juvenilia:“What! do not you know who Miss Williams is? I am sure you must have heard of her before. She is a relation of the Colonel’s, my dear; a very near relation. We will not say how near, for fear of shocking the young ladies.” Then lowering her voice a little, she said to Elinor, “She is his natural daughter.” “Indeed!” “Oh! yes; and as like him as she can stare. I dare say the Colonel will leave her all his fortune.” Lady Middleton’s delicacy was shocked; an in order to banish so improper a subject as the mention of a natural daughter, she actually took the trouble of saying something herself about the weather.
1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility:Dr Erasmus Darwin set up his two illegitimate daughters as the governesses of a school, noting that natural children often had happier (because less pretentious) upbringings than legitimate.
1990, Roy Porter, English Society in the 18th Century, Penguin, published 1991, page 264:Mrs Taft […] had got it into her head that Mr Lydgate was a natural son of Bulstrode's, a fact which seemed to justify her suspicions of evangelical laymen.
1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book III, chapter 26:
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Pertaining to birth or descent; native. ▸ Related by birth; genetically related.
The first-born in every house, “from the first-born of the Pharaoh on the throne, to the first-born of the captive in the dungeon,” unaccountably found himself enlisted in the ranks of this new power, and estranged from his natural friends.
1843, John Henry Newman, “The Kingdom of the Saints”, in Parochial Sermons, 4th edition, volume II, J. G. F. & J. Rivington, pages 264–5:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| naturall | alternative, obsolete | lexicographic | |
| most natural | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| nat'ral | alternative | lexicographic | |
| more natural | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic |
Antonyms
unwonted · uncouth · unexpected · out of the ordinary · unconventional · heteroclite · alien · yampy · nonobligatory · singular · weird · freakish · artificial · skippable · hinky · odd · seld · queer as a clockwork orange · unexpected · kooky · queer · booky · preventable · errant · nonmandatory · exceptional · selcouth · dodgeable · deviant · monstrous · queer as a coot · abnormal · unearthly · forby · irregular · extraordinary · incongruous · fleeable · as queer as Dick's hatband · avoidable · eerie · resistible · rare · enhanced · peculiar · eldritch · freaky · trippy · outré · fremd · abnormal · uncanny · juiced · quaint · processed · incongruitous · outlandish · strange · evitable · aberrant · unusual · unreasonable · anomalous · funny · aberrant · avertable · queer as a nine bob note · uncommon · weird · escapable · evadable · preventible · optional · fey · weirdsome · queer as Dick's hatband · discrepant · curious · artificial · conventional · queer as a three dollar bill · freak · bizarre · rum · nonstandard · rummy
Deriveds
natural family planning · natural astrology · natural history · preternatural · natural religion · natural killer cell · naturalness · natural business year · Cartesian natural transformation · ultra-natural · natural magic · natural child · natural-born · natural join · natural increase rate · naturally · natural unit · paranatural · natural killer · natural advantages · natural selection · natural light · all-natural · extra-natural · natural resources · naturalise · natural frequency · connatural · natural convection · natural function · unnatural · naturalist · supranatural · subnatural · natural language processing · natural fibre · natural daughter · natural gender · natural law · natural breast · natural son · natural logarithm · natural philosopher · counternatural · conatural · natural gas liquid · natural historian · natural transformation · natty · liquified natural gas · natural marriage · natural rubber · natural life sentence · hypernatural · natural deduction · natural log · natural person · natural user interface · naturalesque · natural steel · natural philosophy · natural minor scale · infranatural · natural numbers object · natural economy · seminatural · natural scale · natural gasoline · natural leaven · natural right · dinatural · natural causes · natural childbirth · natural key · natural slope · natural protection · ultranatural · natural scientist · natural theology · natural monopoly · natural virtue · natural numbers · natural grammar · natural reserve · natural trumpet · natural gas · natural vowel · natural harmonic · liquefied natural gas · contranatural · cosmological natural selection · postnatural · natlang · natural food · metanatural · natural preserve · natural language · natural world · natural burial · natural stupidity · natural science · natural disaster · natural aging · nonnatural · natural price · natural parts · naturalize · natural theologian · natural fool · natural sherry · natural birth · natural wastage · semi-natural · natural death · natural medicine · natural resource · naptural · natural uranium · natural language understanding · natural fiber · liquid natural gas · natural product · natural number · natural isomorphism · naturalistic
Relateds
natal · innate · antenatal · nativization · naturalism · nativism · nativity · au naturel · native · naturism · nascent · prenatal
Synonyms
consanguineous · typical · bastardly · foreskinned · unpreventable · raw · intact · congruent · inbred · impreventable · unrefined · akin · extramarital · indigenous · par for the course · workaday · consanguineous · unwanted · inevitable · unescapable · mundane · inevitable · consanguine · unclipped · pristine · ineluctable · inlandish · customary · natural · innate · illegitimate · un-circed · typical · necessary · congenital · everyday · base born · unavoidable · natural · unmixed · autochthonal · commonplace · natural · unalloyed · standard issue · quotidian · routine · connatural · standard · inescapable · inborn · cognate · unstrange · certain · base · misbegotten · consistent · coarse · foreskinned · crude · uncut · unprocessed · unprocessed · natural · unlearned · reasonable · same-blooded · necessary · uncut · unrefined · unprocessed · ordinary · unforestallable · akin · spurious · regular · improminent · indigenous · plain vanilla · common · run-of-the-mill · natural · native · natty · misbegotten · autochthonous · nameless · expected · foregone · trueborn · conventional · plain · normal · degenerate · endemic · consanguineal · congenital · par · unlearnt · average · genetous · congenite · fatal · usual · uncircumcised · ingenite · extramarital · common-or-garden · irresistible · baseborn · predictable · pure · untreated · unjuiced · vulgar · inborn · ordinary · unexceptional · unsnipped · common-and-garden · natural · inexorable · medial · untouched · aboriginal · utter · garden variety · avoidless · natural · bog-standard · crude · native · uncirced · wakeaday · to the manner born · connate · unremarkable · natural-born · same-blooded · spurious · basic
Translations (186)
fi luonnollinen (musically not sharp or flat) · de natürlich (of or relating to nature) · ru есте́ственный (that exists and evolved within the confines of an ecosystem) · es natural (without additives) · tk tebigy (of or relating to nature) · te సహజమైన (without additives) · fi luonnonvärinen (of colour: almost white) · fi tavanomainen (as expected) · pt natural (of or relating to nature) · pt natural (without additives) · ms semulajadi (of or relating to nature) · pl naturalny (of or relating to nature) · gd nàdarrach (of or relating to nature) · fi käsittelemätön (without adjustment) · de naturfarbig (of colour: almost white) · ka ბუნებრივი (as expected) · fr bécarre (musically not sharp or flat) · hi प्राकृतिक (without additives) · he טִבְעִי (of or relating to nature) · nn normal (as expected) · sh при́родан (as expected) · ro natural (of or relating to nature) · nl natuurlijk (of or relating to nature) · fi luonnonmukainen (of or relating to nature) · ia natural (of or relating to nature) · tr natürel (of or relating to nature) · ja 当たり前の (as expected) · nl normaal (as expected) · fi luomu- (without additives) · tt табигый (of or relating to nature) · it naturale (as expected) · he טִבְעִי (without additives) · es natural (of or relating to nature) · nb normal (as expected) · fi biologinen (related genetically but not legally to one's father) · nb naturlig (of or relating to nature) · nb naturlig (without additives) · hu természeti (of or relating to nature) · ka ჩვეულებრივი (as expected) · hu magától értetődő (as expected) · sh при́родан (without additives) · ru есте́ственный (of or relating to nature) · bg есте́ствен (of or relating to nature) · sq natyral (of or relating to nature) · pl naturalny (without additives) · es natural (musically not sharp or flat) · uk приро́дний (of or relating to nature) · ka ბუნებრივი (of or relating to nature) · ru приро́дный (that exists and evolved within the confines of an ecosystem) · fi luonnonmukainen (without additives) · ca natural (musically not sharp or flat) · lv normāls (as expected) · ru натура́льный (without additives) · hu előjegyzés nélküli (musically not sharp or flat) · fi palautettu (musically not sharp or flat) · ang ġecynde (of or relating to nature) · ko 자연스럽다 (as expected) · ht natirel (of or relating to nature) · uk натура́льний (as expected) · tr natürel (without additives) · grc αὐτοφυής (that exists and evolved within the confines of an ecosystem) · it naturale (without additives) · ja 当然の (as expected) · sk prírodný (of or relating to nature) · pt normal (as expected) · ru приро́дный (of or relating to nature) · bg есте́ствен (without additives) · fi luonnollinen (that exists and evolved within the confines of an ecosystem) · ro natural (of colour: almost white) · tr tabii (of or relating to nature) · fi sukua oleva (connected by the ties of consanguinity) · el φυσικός (of or relating to nature) · cs přírodní (of or relating to nature) · hu természetes (as expected) · fi lisäaineeton (without additives) · hy բնական (without additives) · et loomulik (of or relating to nature) · be натура́льны (as expected) · fi luonteva (as expected) · hi प्राकृतिक (of or relating to nature) · sq natyror (of or relating to nature) · lv dabīgs (of or relating to nature) · ga nádúrtha (musically not sharp or flat) · cmn 自然的 (of or relating to nature) · fi luonnonvalkoinen (of colour: almost white) · ca natural (of or relating to nature) · hu kézenfekvő (as expected) · sl naraven (of or relating to nature) · lv dabisks (of or relating to nature) · de natürlich (without adjustment) · qu purum (without additives) · grc φυσικός (of or relating to nature) · ko 자연의 (of or relating to nature) · ba тәбиғи (of or relating to nature) · ga nádúrtha (of or relating to nature) · mi parakore (without additives) · sh neutralna (of colour: almost white) · id alami (of or relating to nature) · da naturlig (of or relating to nature) · tr doğal (of or relating to nature) · ro natural (without adjustment) · mk при́роден (without additives) · ro natural (as expected) · ms semulajadi (without additives) · ro natural (without additives) · tr tabii (without additives) · he בֵּקָר (musically not sharp or flat) · sv naturlig (of or relating to nature) · fa طبیعی (of or relating to nature) · uz tabiiy (of or relating to nature) · hy բնական (of or relating to nature) · mk при́роден (of or relating to nature) · kk табиғи (of or relating to nature) · fr naturel (as expected) · ug تەبىئىي (of or relating to nature) · az təbii (of or relating to nature) · sh при́родан (of or relating to nature) · fi luonnollinen (of or relating to nature) · fi tavallinen (as expected) · fi vokaalinen (music: produced by natural organs) · ja 自然な (of or relating to nature) · fr normal (as expected) · fi luonnollinen (as expected) · te సహజమైన (of or relating to nature) · tg табиӣ (of or relating to nature) · sh prírodan (without additives) · be натура́льны (without additives) · gl natural (musically not sharp or flat) · be прыро́дны (of or relating to nature) · nn naturlig (of or relating to nature) · et looduslik (of or relating to nature) · nl natuurlijk (without additives) · ru натура́льный (as expected) · ka ნორმალური (as expected) · hu természetes (without adjustment) · ja 天然の (of or relating to nature) · it bequadro (of or relating to nature) · gd seachran (musically not sharp or flat) · az təbii (without additives) · fi luonnollinen (having the character or sentiments properly belonging to one's position) · sh nȍrmālan (as expected) · mk е́стествен (of or relating to nature) · ps طبيعي (of or relating to nature) · eo natura (of or relating to nature) · fr naturel (of or relating to nature) · pl naturalny (as expected) · fr naturel (without additives) · lv dabīgs (without additives) · la nātūrālis (of or relating to nature) · it naturale (of or relating to nature) · fi normaali (as expected) · ko 자연스럽다 (without additives) · mk при́роден (as expected) · io naturala (of or relating to nature) · se lunddolaš (of or relating to nature) · bg бека́р (musically not sharp or flat) · sh prírodan (as expected) · et loomulik (as expected) · pl oczywisty (as expected) · sco naitural (of or relating to nature) · hy բնական (as expected) · sh prírodan (of or relating to nature) · nn naturlig (without additives) · hu természetes (without additives) · de naturwüchsig (without adjustment) · tr doğal (without additives) · uk натура́льний (without additives) · mi māhorahora (without adjustment) · gd nàdarrach (without additives) · cs přirozený (as expected) · fi luonnollinen (without adjustment) · gd nàdarrach (as expected) · uk природни́чий (of or relating to nature) · mi urutapu (of or relating to nature) · sh но̏рма̄лан (as expected) · ru есте́ственный (as expected) · fi luonnollinen (bridge: of intuitive bidding) · fi luonnollinen (bodybuilding: not having used performance-enhancers) · mk при́роден (without adjustment) · gl natural (of or relating to nature) · se lunddolaš (without additives) · ru есте́ственный (without additives) · ar طَبِيعِيّ (of or relating to nature) · bg природе́н (of or relating to nature) · mk неутра́лен (of colour: almost white) · de naturfarben (of colour: almost white)