natural

Alternative forms

• naturall (obsolete)
• nat'ral (AAVE)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnæt͡ʃ.ə.ɹəl/, /ˈnæt͡ʃɹəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

natural (comparative more natural, superlative most natural)

1. That exists and evolved within the confines of an ecosystem.
   • 2013 June 21, Karen McVeigh, “US rules human genes can't be patented”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 10:

     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.

   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.

   • Addison

     What can be more natural than the circumstances in 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. 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.

   • Macaulay

     with strong natural sense, and rare force of will

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess‎:

     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.
9. Having the character or sentiments properly belonging to one's position; not unnatural in feelings.
   • Shakespeare

     To leave his wife, to leave his babes, […] / He wants the natural touch.

10. (obsolete) Connected by the ties of consanguinity.
    • J. H. Newman

      natural friends

11. (obsolete) Born out of wedlock; illegitimate; bastard.

    a natural child

12. (of sexual intercourse) Without a condom.

    We made natural love.

Noun

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.
   • 1597, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, by Shakespeare, Act 2 Scene 4

     (Mercutio) [...] this drivelling love is like a great natural, / that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole.

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. (African American Vernacular) 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.

See also

• Appendix:Colors

Further reading

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

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /nə.tuˈɾal/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /na.tuˈɾal/

Adjective

natural (masculine and feminine plural naturals)

1. natural

Noun

natural m, f (plural naturals)

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

Noun

natural m (plural naturals)

1. nature (innate characteristics of a person)

Adjective

natural m, f (plural naturais)

1. natural

Noun

natural m, f (plural naturais)

1. native, natural

Noun 2

natural m (plural naturais)

1. nature (innate characteristics of a person)

Alternative forms

• naturel, naturalle, naturelle, naturell, naturall, naturill

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

Adjective

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.

Etymology

From Latin nātūrālis.

Adjective

natural m (oblique and nominative feminine singular naturale)

1. natural
   • circa 1180,, Chrétien de Troyes, Perceval ou le conte du Graal:

     si sanbla natural color.

     The color seemed so natural.

Etymology

From Old Portuguese natural, from Latin nātūrālis.

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /nɐ.tu.ˈɾaɫ/
• Hyphenation: na‧tu‧ral

Adjective

natural m, 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

Etymology

From Latin nātūrālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /na.tuˈral/

Adjective

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

1. natural

Etymology

From Latin nātūrālis.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -al

Adjective

natural (plural naturales)

1. natural

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish natural (“natural”).

Adjective

naturál

1. natural