natural

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English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English natural, borrowed from Old French natural, naturel, from Latin nātūrālis, from nātus, the perfect participle of nāscor (“be born”, verb).

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

natural (comparative more natural, superlative most natural)

  1. That exists and evolved within the confines of an ecosystem.
    The species will be under threat if its natural habitat is destroyed.
  2. Of or relating to nature.
    In the natural world the fit tend to live on while the weak perish.
  3. Without artificial additives.
    Natural food is healthier than processed food.
  4. As expected; reasonable.
    It's natural for business to be slow on Tuesdays.
    His prison sentence was the natural consequence of a life of crime.
    • 1711 May 25, Joseph Addison; Richard Steele, The Spectator, volume I, number 74, page 333:
      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 ?
  5. (music) Neither sharp nor flat. Denoted ♮.
    There's a wrong note here: it should be C natural instead of C sharp.
  6. (music) Produced by natural organs, such as those of the human throat, in distinction from instrumental music.
  7. (music) Applied to an air or modulation of harmony which moves by easy and smooth transitions, digressing but little from the original key.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Moore (Encyc. of Music) to this entry?)
  8. (mathematics) Having 1 as the base of the system, of a function or number.
  9. Without, or prior to, modification or adjustment.
    the natural motion of a gravitating body
    The chairs were all natural oak but the table had a lurid finish.
    • 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:
      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.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess‎[1]:
      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.
    So-called second-generation silicone breast implants looked and felt more like the natural breast.
    1. (dice games) The result of a dice roll before bonuses or penalties are added to or subtracted from the result.
  10. Having the character or sentiments properly belonging to one's position; not unnatural in feelings.
  11. (obsolete) Connected by the ties of consanguinity.
    • 1843, John Henry Newman, “The Kingdom of the Saints”, in Parochial Sermons, volume II, 4th edition, J. G. F. & J. Rivington, pages 264–5:
      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.
  12. Related genetically but not legally to one's father; born out of wedlock, illegitimate.
    • 1990, Roy Porter, English Society in the 18th Century, Penguin 1991, p. 264:
      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.
  13. (of sexual intercourse) Without a condom.
    We made natural love.
  14. (bridge) Bidding in an intuitive way that reflects one's actual hand.

Synonyms[edit]

Antonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

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 Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun[edit]

natural (plural naturals)

  1. (now rare) A native inhabitant of a place, country etc. [from 16th c.]
    • 1615, Ralph Hamor, A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia, Richmond 1957, page 3:
      I coniecture and assure my selfe that yee cannot be ignorant by what meanes this peace hath bin thus happily both for our proceedings and the welfare of the Naturals concluded [...].
  2. (music) A note that is not or is no longer to be modified by an accidental, or the symbol ♮ used to indicate such a note. [from 17th c.]
  3. One with an innate talent at or for something. [from 18th c.]
    He's a natural on the saxophone.
  4. An almost white colour, with tints of grey, yellow or brown; originally that of natural fabric. [from 20th c.]
    natural colour:  
  5. (archaic) One with a simple mind; a fool or idiot.
    • c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iv], page 62, column 1:
      Why is not this better now, then groning for Loue, now art thou ſociable, now art thou Romeo : now art thou what thou art, by Art as well as by Nature, for this driueling Loue is like a great Naturall, that runs lolling vp and downe to hid his bable in a hole.
    • 1633, A Banqvet of Jests: or, Change of Cheare. Being a collection, of Moderne Ieſts. Witty Ieeres. Pleaſant Taunts. Merry Tales. The Second Part newly publiſhed, page 30:
      A Noble-man tooke a great liking to a naturall, and had covenanted with his parents to take him from them and to keepe him for his pleaſure, and demanding of the Ideot if he would ſerve him, he made him this anſwere, My Father ſaith he, got me to be his foole of my mother, now if you long to have a foole; go & without doubt you may get one of your owne wife.
  6. (colloquial, chiefly Britain) One's natural life.
    • 1929, Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts of Fortune, Vintage 2014, page 155:
      ‘Sergeant-Major Robinson came in in the middle of it, and you've never seen a man look more surprised in your natural.’
  7. (US, colloquial) A hairstyle for people with afro-textured hair in which the hair is not straightened or otherwise treated.
    • 2002, Maxine Leeds Craig, Ain't I a Beauty Queen?: Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of Race, Oxford University Press →ISBN
      Chinosole, who stopped straightening her hair and cut it into a natural while at a predominantly white college, was quite uneasy with the style
    • 2012, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Chicken Soup for the African American Soul: Celebrating and Sharing Our Culture One Story at a Time, Simon and Schuster →ISBN
      I wanted to do it for so long — throw out my chemically relaxed hair for a natural.
    • 2015, Carmen M. Cusack, HAIR AND JUSTICE: Sociolegal Significance of Hair in Criminal Justice, Constitutional Law, and Public Policy, Charles C Thomas Publisher →ISBN, page 155
      Third, it insinuates that black afro hairstyles (e.g., naturals) relate to African cultural heritage, which is largely untrue.
  8. (algebra) Closed under submodules, direct sums, and injective hulls.

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Catalan[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin naturalis.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

natural (masculine and feminine plural naturals)

  1. natural

Derived terms[edit]

Noun[edit]

natural m or f (plural naturals)

  1. native, natural (person who is native to a place)

Synonyms[edit]

Noun[edit]

natural m (plural naturals)

  1. nature (innate characteristics of a person)

Related terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Galician[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin naturalis.

Adjective[edit]

natural m or f (plural naturais)

  1. natural

Derived terms[edit]

Noun[edit]

natural m or f (plural naturais)

  1. native, natural

Synonyms[edit]

Noun 2[edit]

natural m (plural naturais)

  1. nature (innate characteristics of a person)

Related terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Middle English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old French natural, from Latin nātūrālis; equivalent to nature +‎ -al.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /naːˈtiu̯ral/, /naːˈtiu̯rɛl/, /naˈtiu̯ral/, /naˈtiu̯rɛl/

Adjective[edit]

natural

  1. intrinsic, fundamental, basic; relating to natural law.
  2. natural (preexisting; present or due to nature):
    1. usual, regular (i.e. as found in nature)
    2. well; in good heath or condition.
    3. inherited; due to one's lineage.
    4. inborn; due to one's natural reasoning (rather than a deity's intervention)
  3. Nourishing; healthful or beneficial to one's body.
  4. Misbegotten; conceived outside of marriage
  5. Correct, right, fitting.
  6. Diligent in performing one's societal obligations.
  7. (rare) Endemic, indigenous.
  8. (rare) Bodily; relating to one's human form.

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • English: natural
  • Scots: naitural

References[edit]

Old French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin nātūrālis.

Adjective[edit]

natural m (oblique and nominative feminine singular naturale)

  1. natural

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

Portuguese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Portuguese natural, borrowed from Latin nātūrālis.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

natural m or f (plural naturais, comparable)

  1. natural
  2. native of, from
    Sou natural de Lisboa. ― I'm from Lisbon.
  3. room-temperature (of liquids)
    Água natural ― Room-temperature water

Synonyms[edit]

Antonyms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Romanian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin nātūrālis, French naturel, Italian naturale.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

natural m or n (feminine singular naturală, masculine plural naturali, feminine and neuter plural naturale)

  1. natural

Spanish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin nātūrālis.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /natuˈɾal/, [nat̪uˈɾal]
  • Rhymes: -al
  • Hyphenation: na‧tu‧ral

Adjective[edit]

natural (plural naturales)

  1. natural (of or relating to nature)
  2. natural (without artificial additives)
  3. natural (as expected; reasonable)
    Synonym: normal
  4. (of a day) being a calendar day
  5. (music) natural (neither sharp nor flat)
  6. (of a child) illegitimate (born to unmarried parents)
    Synonym: ilegítimo
    Antonym: legítimo
  7. (of a drink) room-temperature (neither heated nor chilled)

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Tagalog[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Spanish natural (“natural”).

Adjective[edit]

naturál

  1. natural
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