natural

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

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

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: năchʹər-əl, năchʹrəl IPA^(key): /ˈnætʃəɹəl/, /ˈnætʃɹəl/
• (General American) enPR: năchʹər-əl, năchʹrəl, IPA^(key): /ˈnætʃəɹəl/, /-ɚəl/, /ˈnætʃɹəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ætʃəɹəl, -ætʃɹəl
• Hyphenation: nat‧u‧ral, natu‧ral

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. (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.

   • 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.
10. 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.

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

      natural friends

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

    a natural child

13. (of sexual intercourse) Without a condom.

    We made natural love.

14. (bridge) Bidding in a intuitive way that reflects one's actual hand.

• (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

• (exists in an ecosystem): aberrant, abnormal, artificial
• (as expected): see Thesaurus:strange
• (without additives): processed
• (bridge): conventional

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.

   • 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.

• Appendix:Colors

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

Borrowed from Latin naturalis.

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

natural (masculine and feminine plural naturals)

1. natural

• naturalment
• nombre natural
• selecció natural

natural m or f (plural naturals)

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

• nadiu

natural m (plural naturals)

1. nature (innate characteristics of a person)

• natura

• “natural” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Borrowed from Latin naturalis.

natural m or f (plural naturais)

1. natural

• naturalmente

natural m or f (plural naturais)

1. native, natural

• nativo

natural m (plural naturais)

1. nature (innate characteristics of a person)

• natureza

• “natural” in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega, Royal Galician Academy.

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

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

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

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.

• supernatural

• English: natural
• Scots: naitural

• “nātūrāl (adj.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-06-14.

Borrowed from Latin nātūrālis.

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.

• nature
• naistre

• English: natural
• French: naturel

From Old Portuguese natural, borrowed from Latin nātūrālis.

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

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

• (native of): originário, oriundo

• (room-temperature): fresco

• natura
• naturalidade
• naturalismo
• naturalístico
• naturalizar
• naturalmente
• natureza
• naturismo

Borrowed from Latin nātūrālis, French naturel, Italian naturale.

• IPA^(key): /na.tuˈral/

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

1. natural

Borrowed from Latin nātūrālis.

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

natural (plural naturales)

1. natural

• “natural” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

Borrowed from Spanish natural (“natural”).

naturál

1. natural