Word.ws English Dictionary

au naturel

Syllables: au na·tur·elUK/əʊ næt͡ʃʊˈɹɛl//ˌoʊ ˌnætəˈɹɛl/

au naturel adjective: of a person: not wearing makeup and with one's natural hair colour.

Adjective

au naturel (not comparable)

  1. Of a person: not wearing makeup and with one's natural hair colour.
    • This is my au naturel look. How do you like it?
    • [A]t his age, people of his country have odd prejudices. He may not make up; and he might feel a little offended. To say the truth, I think it is au naturel. There is a grey tint under the eye, which I don't think that any modern colours could have produced—perfectly Ludovico, perfectly. If he do...1827, [Benjamin Disraeli], chapter XV, in Vivian Grey, volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, book V, page 303
    Synonyms:
    all-natural
  2. Of a person (especially a woman): having untrimmed pubic hair.
    • She prefers to keep her private parts au naturel.
    • "There's nary a pubic hair in sight in most porn," wrote Cindy Gallop in Make Love Not Porn, "which puts a whole lot of grooming pressure on women and is actually rather depressing for those men who like women au naturel."Cindy Gallop (2013), Make Love Not Porn: Technology’s Hardcore Impact on Human Behavior, New York, N.Y.: TED Conferences, →ISBN
  3. Of food: prepared or served raw or very simply cooked.
    • [F]ew of the French travellers who have lately visited our Isle appear to have been much gratified with their trip. They in general speak with great contempt of our national partiality for roast beef and potatoes "au naturel."1817 November, Un Vieux Celibataire [pseudonym], “Letters of an Old Bachelor. No. I.”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume II, number VIII, Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, printers, →OCLC, page 192...
  4. (humorous, sometimes) Of a person: in a state of not wearing clothes; in the nude, naked.
    • Bella was au naturel for that photo session.
    • And now here is Loola—Loola without the least pretension to education or good breeding, Loola au naturel with a musky redolence which, on second thought, has something really rather fascinating about it.1948 August, Aldous Huxley, “The Script”, in Ape and Essence, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 82
    Synonyms:
    bare, bare-ass, bare-assed, bare-bottomed, bare-bum, bare-butt, barefoot all over, bare naked, bareskin, bare-skinned

Adverb

au naturel (not comparable)

  1. Of the action of a person: in a manner without makeup and with one's natural hair colour.
    • Well, few of us are blessed with flawless complexions such as yours, so if you want to go au naturel, that's fine by me.2013, Laura Lascarso, Counting Backwards, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, →ISBN, page 134
    • Why did some women eschew makeup? It seemed to be a recent trend for her. Had her religious fiancé requested she go au naturel?2014 October, Daryl Wood Gerber, Stirring the Plot, mass-market edition, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Prime Crime, →ISBN, page 121
  2. Of the action of a person (especially a woman): in a manner with untrimmed pubic hair.
  3. Of the preparation or serving of food: in a raw or very simply cooked manner.
    • Our chef insists on preparing this cut au naturel.
  4. (humorous, sometimes) Of the action of a person: in a naked manner; without clothes; in the nude, nakedly.
    • Bella loved posing au naturel for the artist.

au naturel meaning in Tamil

au naturel in Tamil

மிக எளிமை வாய்ந்த முறையில்

Synonyms of au naturel

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All synonyms of au naturel

Origin of au naturel

Unadapted borrowing from French au naturel (“in the natural state; cooked plainly”), from au (“at the; in the; to the”) + naturel (“natural”) (ultimately borrowed from Latin nātūrālis (“of or relating to nature”), from nātūra (“natural world, nature”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship)). Nātūra is derived from nāscor (“to be born; to grow, spring forth”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to beget; to give birth; to produce”)) + -tūra (suffix forming action nouns denoting activities or their results).

Words that rhyme with au naturel

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Questions about au naturel

What does au naturel mean?
Au naturel means of a person: not wearing makeup and with one's natural hair colour.
What is au naturel in Tamil?
Au naturel in Tamil is மிக எளிமை வாய்ந்த முறையில். See Au naturel meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is au naturel?
Au naturel can be an adjective or an adverb.
How do you pronounce au naturel?
Au naturel is pronounced /əʊ næt͡ʃʊˈɹɛl/ (UK).

Words near au naturel in the dictionary

  1. au fond
  2. au go-go
  3. au gratin
  4. au jus
  5. au mieux
  6. au naturel
  7. au pair
  8. au pairs
  9. au reservoir
  10. au revoir
  11. Au Train

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: au naturel (page history and authors); au naturel (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-au naturel.wav.

Cite this entry: “au naturel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/au_naturel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.