natural

Syllables: nat·u·ral/ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹəl/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

South Asia/ˈnatʃ(ʊ)rəl/

natural adjective: existing in the nature of a person or thing; innate, not acquired or learned.

Adjective

natural (comparative more natural, superlative most natural)

Existing in the nature of a person or thing; innate, not acquired or learned.
- The natural Love of Life gave me some inward Motions of Joy.1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, (please specify |part=I to IV)
- 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...1858, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter VII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume II, Longman et al., page 419
Synonyms:

congenital, inborn, connate, connatural, congenite, genetous, inbred, indigenous, ingenite, innate

Antonyms:

aberrant, abnormal, artificial
Normally associated with a particular person or thing; inherently related to the nature of a thing or creature.
- The species will be under threat if its natural habitat is destroyed.
As expected; reasonable, normal; naturally arising from the given circumstances.
- It's natural for business to be slow on Tuesdays.
- His prison sentence was the natural consequence of a life of crime.
Synonyms:

inevitable, necessary, reasonable, ordinary, typical, avoidless, certain, fatal, foregone, impreventable

Antonyms:

unexpected, weird, avertable, avoidable, dodgeable, escapable, evadable, evitable, fleeable, nonmandatory
Formed by nature; not manufactured or created by artificial processes.
- 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.2013 June 21, Karen McVeigh, “US rules human genes can't be patented”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 10
Synonyms:

crude, unprocessed, unrefined, raw, coarse, pure, pristine, unalloyed, unmixed, untouched
Pertaining to death brought about by disease or old age, rather than by violence, accident etc.
- 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.2015 June 5, The Guardian
Having an innate ability to fill a given role or profession, or display a specified character.
- 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.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
Synonyms:

natural-born
Designating a standard trigonometric function of an angle, as opposed to the logarithmic function.
Closed under submodules, direct sums, and injective hulls.
Neither sharp nor flat. Denoted ♮.
- There's a wrong note here: it should be C natural instead of C sharp.
Containing no artificial or man-made additives; especially (of food) containing no colourings, flavourings or preservatives.
- Natural food is healthier than processed food.
Synonyms:

unprocessed

Antonyms:

processed
Pertaining to a decoration that preserves or enhances the appearance of the original material; not stained or artificially coloured.
Pertaining to a fabric still in its undyed state, or to the colour of undyed fabric.

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Pertaining to a dice roll before bonuses or penalties have been applied to the result.
Not having used anabolic steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.

Synonyms:

natty, unjuiced

Antonyms:

enhanced, juiced
Uncircumcised; intact.

Synonyms:

foreskinned, uncut, intact, uncirced, un-circed, uncircumcised, unclipped, unsnipped
Bidding in an intuitive way that reflects one's actual hand.

Antonyms:

artificial, conventional
Having a given status (especially of authority) by virtue of birth.
- Whom should he follow but his naturall king.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
- 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.1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington...
Synonyms:

trueborn
Related genetically but not legally to one's father; born out of wedlock, illegitimate.
- [M]y Mother was the natural Daughter of a Scotch Peer by an italian Opera-girl […].1790, Jane Austen, “Love and Freindship”, in Juvenilia
- “What! do not you know who Miss Williams is? I am sure you must have heard of her before. She is a relation of the Colonel’s, my dear; a very near relation. We will not say how near, for fear of shocking the young ladies.” Then lowering her voice a little, she said to Elinor, “She is his natural...1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
Synonyms:

extramarital, misbegotten, spurious, illegitimate, base, baseborn, base born, bastardly, nameless, unwanted
Related by birth; genetically related.
- 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.1843, John Henry Newman, “The Kingdom of the Saints”, in Parochial Sermons, 4th edition, volume II, J. G. F. & J. Rivington, pages 264–5
Synonyms:

akin, consanguineous, same-blooded, cognate, consanguine, consanguineal

Noun

natural (countable and uncountable, plural naturals)

(archaic) 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 […]1615, Ralph Hamor, A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia, Richmond, published 1957, page 3
A note that is not or is no longer to be modified by an accidental.
The symbol ♮ used to indicate such a natural note.
One with an innate talent at or for something.
- He's a natural on the saxophone.
(uncountable) An almost white colour, with tints of grey, yellow or brown; originally that of natural fabric.
(archaic) 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.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- 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...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
Synonyms:

half-natural, addle-brain, addlehead, addle pate, airhead, baboon, beanbrain, beetlebrain, beetlehead, berk
(UK, colloquial) 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.’1929, Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts of Fortune, Vintage, published 2014, page 155
(US, colloquial) 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 style2002, Maxine Leeds Craig, Ain't I a Beauty Queen?: Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of Race, Oxford University Press, →ISBN
- I wanted to do it for so long — throw out my chemically relaxed hair for a natural.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
(in plural, slang) 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 presence1999 March 2, Mathew Alphonse Coppola, “Please rate these women...”, in rec.arts.movies.erotica (Usenet)
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.2010, Gregg Valentino, Nathan Jendrick, Death, Drugs, and Muscle
Synonyms:

natty
(craps) A roll of two dice with a score of 7 or 11 on the comeout roll.
A deal of cards totalling 8 or 9.
- ‘Now,’ Bond continued, ‘when the banker deals me my two cards, if they add up to eight or nine, they're a ‘natural’ and I turn them up and I win, unless he has an equal or a better natural. If I haven't got a natural, I can stand on a seven or a six, perhaps ask for a card or perhaps not, on a...1953, Ian Fleming, “The Game Is Baccarat”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 69
Synonym of pontoon (“hand totalling 21 points”).

Synonyms:

pontoon

Adverb

natural (comparative more natural, superlative most natural)

(colloquial, dialectal) Naturally; in a natural manner.
- Dr. Watson, on the other hand, spoke natural.2002, Daniel Shields, I Know Where the Horses Play, iUniverse, page 64
- "If the doctor hadn't been sure she was strangled you'd have sworn she died natural."2005, Leo Bruce, Jack on the Gallows Tree: A Carolus Deene Mystery, Chicago: Chicago Review Press, page 124

natural meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

natural in Hindi

of or relating to nature: प्राकृतिक prākŕtik
without additives: प्राकृतिक prākŕtik

natural in Marathi

natural: प्राकृत prākrut, नैसर्गिक naisargik
natural, innate, inborn: सहज sahaj

natural in Urdu

natural, innate, intrinsic, physical, physicist, pertaining to physics: طبیعی tabī'ī
natural: ذاتی zātī, سادھارن sādhāran

More languagesFewer languages

natural in Bengali: নৈসর্গিক noishôrgik, প্রাকৃতিক prakritik, স্বাভাবিক śabhabik, অকৃত্রিম okritrim
natural in Telugu: సహజమైన sahajamaina
natural in Malayalam: സ്വാഭാവിക svābhāvika
natural in Kannada: ನೈಸರ್ಗಿಕ naisargika
natural in Punjabi: ਕੁਦਰਤੀ kudratī, ਪ੍ਰਾਕ੍ਰਿਤਿਕ prākritik
natural in Gujarati: નૈસર્ગિક naisargik
natural in Odia: ପ୍ରାକୃତିକ prākrutika
natural in Sanskrit: प्राकृतिक prākṛtika
natural in Nepali: प्राकृतिक
natural in Pashto: طبيعي tabi'i
natural in Arabic: طَبِيعِيّ ṭabīʕiyy
natural in Malay: semulajadi
natural in Indonesian: alami
natural in Persian: طبیعی tabi'i

Examples of natural in a sentence

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.2019 July 10, Stephen Moss, “Could your cab driver really be the next Pavarotti?”, in The Guardian:
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 ?1711 May 25, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, The Spectator, volume I, number 74, page 333:
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.1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book III, chapter 26:
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.1990, Roy Porter, English Society in the 18th Century, Penguin, published 1991, page 264:

All 40 example sentences with natural

Synonyms of natural

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Antonyms

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All synonyms and antonyms of natural

Forms of natural

Adjective
comparative	more natural
superlative	most natural
alternative form	nat'ral
alternative form (obsolete)	naturall
Noun
plural	naturals
Adverb
comparative	more natural
superlative	most natural

Plural of natural: naturals

Origin of natural

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.

Words formed from natural

Phrases with natural

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Words that rhyme with natural

Questions about natural

What does natural mean?: Natural means existing in the nature of a person or thing; innate, not acquired or learned.
What is natural in Hindi?: Natural in Hindi is प्राकृतिक (prākŕtik). See Natural meaning in Hindi.
How do you use natural in a sentence?: 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.
What part of speech is natural?: Natural can be an adjective, a noun or an adverb.
How do you pronounce natural?: Natural is pronounced /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹəl/.

Words near natural in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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