NATURAL
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English natural,
borrowed from Old French natural, naturel,
from nātus, the perfect participle of nāscor (“be born”, verb).
Displaced native Old English ġecynde.
Adjective
natural (comparative more natural, superlative most natural)
- Existing in nature.
- Existing in the nature of a person or thing; innate, not acquired or learned. [from 14th c.] quotations ▼
- Normally associated with a particular person or thing; inherently related to the nature of a thing or creature. [from 14th c.]
The species will be under threat if its natural habitat is destroyed.
- As expected; reasonable, normal; naturally arising from the given circumstances. [from 14th c.] quotations ▼
It's natural for business to be slow on Tuesdays.
His prison sentence was the natural consequence of a life of crime.
- Formed by nature; not manufactured or created by artificial processes. [from 15th c.] quotations ▼
- Pertaining to death brought about by disease or old age, rather than by violence, accident etc. [from 16th c.] quotations ▼
She died of natural causes.
- Having an innate ability to fill a given role or profession, or display a specified character. [from 16th c.] quotations ▼
- (mathematics) Designating a standard trigonometric function of an angle, as opposed to the logarithmic function. [from 17th c.]
- (music) Neither sharp nor flat. Denoted ♮. [from 18th c.]
There's a wrong note here: it should be C natural instead of C sharp.
- Containing no artificial or man-made additives; especially (of food) containing no colourings, flavourings or preservatives. [from 19th c.]
Natural food is healthier than processed food.
- Pertaining to a decoration that preserves or enhances the appearance of the original material; not stained or artificially coloured. [from 19th c.]
- Pertaining to a fabric still in its undyed state, or to the colour of undyed fabric. [from 19th c.]
- (dice games) Pertaining to a dice roll before bonuses or penalties have been applied to the result.
- (bodybuilding) Not having used anabolic steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. antonym ▲Antonym: enhanced
- (bridge) Bidding in an intuitive way that reflects one's actual hand. antonym ▲Antonym: artificial
- (algebra) Closed under submodules, direct sums, and injective hulls.
- Pertaining to birth or descent; native.
- Having a given status (especially of authority) by virtue of birth. [14th–19th c.] quotations ▼
- Related genetically but not legally to one's father; born out of wedlock, illegitimate. [from 15th c.] quotations ▼
- Related by birth; genetically related. [from 16th c.] quotations ▼
Synonyms[edit]
- (exists in an ecosystem): see Thesaurus:innate or Thesaurus:native
- (as expected): inevitable, necessary, reasonable; See also Thesaurus:inevitable
- (without adjustment): see Thesaurus:raw
- (connected by consanguinity): see Thesaurus:consanguine
- (born out of wedlock): see Thesaurus:illegitimate
- (without a condom): see Thesaurus:condomless
Antonyms[edit]
- (exists in an ecosystem): aberrant, abnormal, artificial
- (as expected): see Thesaurus:strange
- (without additives): processed
- (bridge): conventional
Derived terms[edit]
- all-natural
- Cartesian natural transformation
- cosmological natural selection
- extra-natural
- liquefied natural gas
- liquid natural gas
- liquified natural gas
- natural advantages
- natural aging
- natural birth
- natural-born
- natural breast
- natural business year
- natural causes
- natural child
- natural childbirth
- natural convection
- natural daughter
- natural death
- natural deduction
- natural disaster
- natural economy
- natural family planning
- natural fiber
- natural food
- natural frequency
- natural function
- natural gas
- natural gas liquid
- natural gender
- natural grammar
- natural harmonic
- natural historian
- natural history
- natural increase rate
- naturalise/naturalize
- natural isomorphism
- naturalist
- natural join
- natural key
- natural killer
- natural killer cell
- natural language
- natural language processing
- natural language understanding
- natural law
- natural light
- natural log
- natural logarithm
- naturally
- natural medicine
- natural minor scale
- natural monopoly
- naturalness
- natural number
- natural numbers
- natural numbers object
- natural person
- natural philosopher
- natural philosophy
- natural preserve
- natural price
- natural product
- natural protection
- natural religion
- natural reserve
- natural resource
- natural resources
- natural right
- natural scale
- natural science
- natural scientist
- natural selection
- natural sherry
- natural slope
- natural son
- natural steel
- natural theology
- natural transformation
- natural trumpet
- natural unit
- natural user interface
- natural virtue
- natural vowel
- natural wastage
- natural world
- semi-natural, seminatural
- ultra-natural
- unnatural
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