natural

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
7
Words With Friends
10
Letters
7
Pronunciation
/ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹəl/
See all 3 pronunciations
/ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹəl/ · /ˈnatʃ(ʊ)rəl/ · /ˈnetʃ(ʊ)rəl/

Definition of natural

31 senses · 3 parts of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. Existing in nature.
    “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.”
See all 31 definitions

adj

  1. Existing in nature.
    “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.”
  2. Existing in nature.
    “The species will be under threat if its natural habitat is destroyed.”
  3. Existing in nature.
    “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 ?”
  4. Existing in nature.
    “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.”
  5. Existing in nature.
    “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.”
  6. Existing in nature.
    “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.”
  7. Existing in nature.
  8. Existing in nature.
  9. Existing in nature.
    “There's a wrong note here: it should be C natural instead of C sharp.”
  10. Existing in nature.
    “Natural food is healthier than processed food.”
  11. Existing in nature.
  12. Existing in nature.
  13. Existing in nature.
  14. Existing in nature.
  15. Existing in nature.
  16. Existing in nature.
  17. Pertaining to birth or descent; native.
    “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.”
  18. Pertaining to birth or descent; native.
    “[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 (because less pretentious) upbringings than legitimate.”
  19. Pertaining to birth or descent; native.
    “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.”

noun

  1. (archaic, countable, uncountable)A native inhabitant of a place, country, etc.
    “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. (countable, uncountable)A note that is not or is no longer to be modified by an accidental.
  3. (countable, uncountable)The symbol ♮ used to indicate such a natural note.
  4. (countable, uncountable)One with an innate talent at or for something.
    “He's a natural on the saxophone.”
  5. (uncountable)An almost white colour, with tints of grey, yellow or brown; originally that of natural fabric.
  6. (archaic, countable, uncountable)One with a simple mind; a fool or idiot.
    “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.”
    “"Why you are a natural! I thought you had learned something by this time.”
  7. (UK, colloquial, countable, uncountable)One's life.
    “‘Sergeant-Major Robinson came in in the middle of it, and you've never seen a man look more surprised in your natural.’”
  8. (US, colloquial, countable, uncountable)A hairstyle for people with Afro-textured hair in which the hair is not straightened or otherwise treated.
    “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 (e.g., naturals) relate to African cultural heritage, which is largely untrue.”
  9. (countable, in-plural, slang, uncountable)A breast which has not been modified by plastic surgery.
    “big naturals”
    “> 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.”
  10. (countable, uncountable)Someone who has not used anabolic steroids or other performance-enhancing substances.
    “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.”
  11. (countable, uncountable)A roll of two dice with a score of 7 or 11 on the comeout roll.

adv

  1. (colloquial, dialectal)Naturally; in a natural manner.
    “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."”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Inherited 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. By surface analysis, natur(e) + -al.

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