spontaneity

English

Etymology

Compare French spontanéité.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈspɒn.tɪ.neɪ.ɪ.ti/, X-SAMPA: /"spQn.tI.neI.I.ti/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

spontaneity (countable and uncountable; plural spontaneities)

1. (uncountable) The quality of being spontaneous.
   • Elizabeth Browning

     Romney Leigh, who lives by diagrams, / And crosses not the spontaneities / Of all his individual, personal life / With formal universals.

2. (countable) Spontaneous behaviour.
3. (biology) The tendency to undergo change, characteristic of both animal and vegetable organisms, and not restrained or checked by the environment.
4. (biology) The tendency to activity of muscular tissue, including the voluntary muscles, when in a state of healthful vigour and refreshment.

Antonyms

• (quality of being spontaneous): discipline

Related terms

• spontaneous

Translations

the quality of being spontaneous

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 自發性 (cmn), 自发性 (cmn) (zìfāxìng)

• Czech: spontánnost (cs) f
• Finnish: spontaanisuus (fi)
• French: spontanéité (fr) f
• German: Spontanität (de) f
• Japanese: 自発性 (ja) (じはつせい, jihatsusei)

• Korean: 자발성 (ko) (jabalseong)
• Polish: spontaniczność (pl) f
• Romanian: spontaneitate (ro) f
• Russian: спонтанность (ru) (spontánnostʹ) f
• Serbo-Croatian: spȍntānōst (sh) f, спо̏нта̄но̄ст (sh) f
• Spanish: espontaneidad (es) f

spontaneous behaviour

• Czech: spontánnost (cs) f
• Hungarian: spontaneitás (hu)

• Russian: спонтанность (ru) (spontánnostʹ) f
• Serbo-Croatian: spȍntānōst (sh) f, спо̏нта̄но̄ст (sh) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• German: Spontaneität (also Spontanität) f (1,2)

• Italian: Spontaneità f

External links

• spontaneity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• spontaneity in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• spontaneity at OneLook Dictionary Search