Etimology
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.
adjective
natural (comparative more natural, superlative most natural)
Existing in nature.
Pertaining to birth or descent; native.
Examples
The natural Love of Life gave me some inward Motions of Joy.
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.
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.
The species will be under threat if its natural habitat is destroyed.
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 ?
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.
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.
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.
There's a wrong note here: it should be C natural instead of C sharp.
Natural food is healthier than processed food.
Antonym: enhanced
Antonyms: artificial, conventional
Whom should he follow but his naturall king.
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.
[M]y Mother was the natural Daughter of a Scotch Peer by an italian Opera-girl […] .
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.
Dr Erasmus Darwin set up his two illegitimate daughters as the governesses of a school, noting that natural children often had happier upbringings than legitimate.
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.
Related words
synonyms
(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
(antonym(s) of "exists in an ecosystem"): aberrant, abnormal, artificial
(antonym(s) of "as expected"): see Thesaurus:strange
(antonym(s) of "without additives"): processed
related terms
antenatal
au naturel
innate
nascent
natal
native
nativism
nativity
nativization
naturalism
naturism
prenatal
noun
natural (plural naturals)
(now rare) A native inhabitant of a place, country etc. [from 16th c.]
(music) A note that is not or is no longer to be modified by an accidental. [from 17th c.]
(music) The symbol ♮ used to indicate such a natural note.
One with an innate talent at or for something. [from 18th c.]
An almost white colour, with tints of grey, yellow or brown; originally that of natural fabric. [from 20th c.]
(archaic) One with a simple mind; a fool or idiot.
(colloquial, chiefly UK) One's life.
(US, colloquial) A hairstyle for people with Afro-textured hair in which the hair is not straightened or otherwise treated.
(slang, chiefly in plural) A breast which has not been modified.
(bodybuilding) Someone who has not used anabolic steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.
(craps) A roll of two dice with a score of 7 or 11 on the comeout roll.
Examples
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 […]
He's a natural on the saxophone.
natural:
Synonym: half-natural
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.
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.
‘Sergeant-Major Robinson came in in the middle of it, and you've never seen a man look more surprised in your natural.’
Chinosole, who stopped straightening her hair and cut it into a natural while at a predominantly white college, was quite uneasy with the style
I wanted to do it for so long — throw out my chemically relaxed hair for a natural.
Third, it insinuates that black afro hairstyles relate to African cultural heritage, which is largely untrue.
> Nina Hartley ¶ 2, unattractive, square "steriod[sic] jaw", nice ass, FAKE breasts or small naturals, great sexual presence […] > Marilyn Monroe ¶ 7, decent body, medium NATURALS, stereotypical "godess[sic]/playboy" blond/blue doesn't usually work for me, good sexual presence
She's [Eva/Mercedes] a brunette European with a curvy natural body with nice tits. For that matter, there are lots of women in Rocco [Siffredi]'s vids with nice naturals.
It isn't the big naturals on a little torso that do it for me, since that is not my thing.
I’m really a good person with a good heart and I believe there is someone out there who will love me. Hopefully a Mexican hottie with big naturals.
Synonym: natty
For so long I stayed natural because it was a sense of pride to me that as a natural I was still competing and beating guys who were juicing up.
adverb
natural (comparative more natural, superlative most natural)
(colloquial, dialect) Naturally; in a natural manner.
Examples
Dr. Watson, on the other hand, spoke natural.
"If the doctor hadn't been sure she was strangled you'd have sworn she died natural."