spontaneous

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

Late Latin spontaneus, from Latin sponte (sua) (“‘of one's free will, voluntarily’”).

[edit] Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪniəs
•  Audio (US)^{help, file}

[edit] Adjective

spontaneous (comparative more spontaneous, superlative most spontaneous)

1. Self generated; happening without any apparent external cause.

   He made a spontaneous offer of help.

2. Done by one's own free choice, or without planning.
3. proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external constraint
4. arising from a momentary impulse
5. controlled and directed internally : self-active : spontaneous movement characteristic of living things
6. produced without being planted or without human labor : indigenous
7. not apparently contrived or manipulated : natural
8. Random.
9. Sudden, without warning.

[edit] Derived terms

• spontaneity
• spontaneously
• spontaneousness

[edit] Related terms

• spontaneous combustion

[edit] Translations