Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use spontaneous in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective

Spontaneous means self-directed; happening or acting without external cause or instigation; proceeding from natural feeling, temperament, or momentary impulse. Example: “He made a spontaneous offer of help.”

Examples of spontaneous by meaning

adjectiveSelf-directed; happening or acting without external cause or instigation; proceeding from natural feeling, temperament...

  • He made a spontaneous offer of help.

adjectiveDone by one's own free choice, or without planning.

  • YSL, as he is often called, is equally capable of casual, aristocratic cruelty and earthy, spontaneous tenderness, and when you study his face it can be hard to distinguish boredom from rapture.2015 May 7, A. O. Scott, “Review: ‘Saint Laurent,’ Beautiful People, High Fashion and Career at Its Pinnacle”, in The New York Times...

adjectiveSaid or done without prior planning or prior writing.

  • He made spontaneous remarks in the court, after being asked an unexpected question.

More sentences with spontaneous

  • She always gets spontaneous applause for that one move.From the entry move
  • Over time, the spontaneous movement had become an organization.From the entry organization
  • I dumped my ex wife's PT Cruiser in the ghetto, hoping a spontaneous strip party would scrap that ugly car down to the wheels overnight.From the entry strip party
  • Futurist poetry is a spontaneous uninterrupted flow of analogies, each synthesized in an essential noun”.2016, Eduardo Ledesma, Radical Poetry: Aesthetics, Politics, Technology, and the Ibero-American Avant-Gardes, 1900-2015, SUNY Press…. From the entry futurist
  • Where venous pulsation was spontaneous ophthalmodynamometry could not be performed and VPP was considered equal to IOP.2016 January 30, “Intraocular Pressure Reduction Is Associated with Reduced Venous Pulsation Pressure”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry ophthalmodynamometry
  • Moreover, in the presence of spontaneous fluctuations of the activity, different aspects of “bananahood” will flash up.2016 November 4, Michael A. Arbib, James J. Bonaiuto, From Neuron to Cognition via Computational Neuroscience, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 203. From the entry bananahood
  • The current study investigates autoantibodies against steroid synthesis enzymes in dogs with spontaneous hypoadrenocorticism.2015 December 1, “Autoantibodies against Cytochrome P450 Side-Chain Cleavage Enzyme in Dogs ( Canis lupus familiaris ) Affected with…. From the entry investigate
  • This hyperreflexive “turning backward” toward the self is incompatible with more spontaneous, world-directed forms of activity.2013, KWM Fulford, Martin Davies, Richard Gipps, The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry, →ISBN, page v. From the entry hyperreflexive
  • The meaning of tianli here is perhaps closer to something like, “spontaneous (nonfabricated, nonarranged, nonteleological) coherence.”2013, Brook Ziporyn, Beyond Oneness and Difference, →ISBN, pages 59–60. From the entry nonarranged
  • Spontaneous separation of species in a droplet may lead to asymmetric structures.2013 December 6, Xiao-Ting Sun, Mei Liu, Zhang-Run Xu, “Microfluidic fabrication of multifunctional particles and their analytical…. From the entry self-segment
  • We next examined which complexin sequences mediate spontaneous and evoked fusion.2009 January 23, Anton Maximov et al., “Complexin Controls the Force Transfer from SNARE Complexes to Membranes in Fusion”, in Science…. From the entry complexin
  • Spontaneous cervicocerebral artery dissection (CAD) is a common etiology of ischaemic stroke in young adults.2009, Metso TM, Metso AJ, Salonen O, Haapaniemi E, Putaala J, Artto V, Helenius J, Kaste M, Tatlisumak T, “Adult cervicocerebral artery…. From the entry cervicocerebral
  • The only spontaneous instance of a dehortative recorded is the one in (20-47) below.2008, Frantisek Lichtenberk, A Grammar of Toqabaqita, page 854. From the entry dehortative
  • Evidence strongly suggests that spontaneous doublet mutations in normal mouse tissues generally arise from chronocoordinate events.2008, Zhenbin Chen, “Epidemiology of doublet/multiplet mutations in lung cancers: evidence that a subset arises by chronocoordinate…. From the entry chronocoordinate
  • A more unusual sport is calvinball, which involves spontaneous rules that are never the same twice.2006, Lee Mothes, The New Island Relocation Guide: How to Live on the Island of Possibility, →ISBN, page 50. From the entry Calvinball
  • The main tenets of Extropianism are ‘boundless expansion, self-transformation, dynamic optimism, intelligent technology, and spontaneous order’.2004, Malcolm Miles, Tim Hall, Iain Borden, The City Cultures Reader, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 238. From the entry extropianism
  • I don't condone the crude and racist slogans that spontaneous counterdemonstrators yelled at the pro-Palestinian protestors.1988 June 3, Elliot Zashin, “Demonstration: An Incomplete Picture”, in Chicago Reader. From the entry counterdemonstrator
  • She thought of Eleanor with her habit of giving spontaneous utterance to stray and irresponsible accusations.1957, Muriel Spark, The Comforters, New York: Avon, published 1965, Part 2, Chapter 8, p. 196. From the entry becloud
  • They consist in unilateral or bilateral hypnosmia or anosmia which may be bound with spontaneous parosmias.1949 July, F. C. Sumner, “[Part III.—Bibliography and Epitome.] Smell and Taste Disturbances after Head Injuries.”, in G. W. T. H.…. From the entry parosmia
  • The jury is still out, because the Libetian literature remains almost entirely about spontaneous decisions regarding some fairly simple things.2023, Robert M. Sapolsky, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, New York: Penguin, →ISBN. From the entry Libetian
  • Key ingredients for memehood, generally, are the rapid and spontaneous sharing of the thing and some sort of cultural context.2021 June 17, Stefanie Pettit, “Navigating the meme streets of social media”, in The Spokesman-Review, 139th volume, number 9, page N4…. From the entry memehood
  • Judges often became the recipients of spontaneous unburdenings, which could happen only when the tellers already trusted their listeners' discretion.2013, Phyllis Ann Karr, At Amberleaf Fair, page 84. From the entry unburdening
  • The unofficial status of microtoponymy on Vernon is illustrated by the matter-of-fact, spontaneous, and descriptive nature of such names.2013, Joshua Nash, Insular Toponymies: Place-naming on Norfolk Island, South Pacific and Dudley Peninsula, Kangaroo Island, →ISBN. From the entry microtoponymy
  • Monkeys also show paucity of spontaneous movements in limbs contralateral to a lesion, misreach for targets and have difficulty in grasping.2012, J. Hyvärinen, The Parietal Cortex of Monkey and Man, page 161. From the entry misreach
  • Gretta's story, by contrast, has all the force of an authentic performance, a spontaneous speech-act that recreates its own referential validity.2004, Gerald Doherty, Dubliners' Dozen, page 132. From the entry hypodiegetic
  • While laissez-faire economy was the product of deliberate State action, subsequent restrictions on laissez-faire started in a spontaneous way.2001 [1944], Karl Polanyi, “12. Birth of the Liberal Creed”, in The Great Transformation. From the entry laissez faire
  • The spontaneous, improvisatory, perhaps bennied-up writer is not a raving verbiage-machine hurling out every word that comes to mind.1998, David Sterritt, Mad to be Saved: The Beats, the '50s, and Film, →ISBN, page 194. From the entry bennied-up
  • The lilting music of a lederhosed accordionist drifts through the dining areas resulting in spontaneous singing and hand clapping.1972 September 30, “Gaiety Growing At Grammer’s”, in The Cincinnati Enquirer, 132nd year, number 174, Cincinnati, Oh., Restaurant Tab…. From the entry lederhosed
  • The place of molybdomancy is also to be located in the uncertain border area between spontaneous and solicited projection.1957, Robert Plank, “Spontaneous Projection of Meaningful Forms”, in Journal of Projective Techniques, page 146. From the entry molybdomancy
  • Remember the strange case of "spontaneous human combustion", in St.1953, George Hunt Williamson, Other Tongues - Other Flesh, London: Neville Spearman, page 293. From the entry spontaneous human combustion
  • Spontaneous mutations in bacteria are generally reversible.1951 March, K. C. Atwood, “Periodic Selection in Escherichia Coli”, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United…. From the entry prototrophy
  • As the action developed further, trigeminous beats began; still later they developed into an irregular spontaneous ventricular rhythm.1926, A. R. Cushny, K. Y. Yu, “Slowing and Block in the Heart under Digitalis in Animals”, in The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental…. From the entry trigeminous
  • The spontaneous intellect of man always defines the divine which it feels in ways that harmonise with its temporary intellectual prepossessions.1902, William James, “Lecture XVIII: Philosophy”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.…. From the entry prepossession
  • Crazy, because the loose, spontaneous, extroverted, chill, crackhead, bruh girl Justine doesn’t usually come out unless invited by a fiery ball or California beach town.2021 November 16, Justine Orgel, “Feminist of the Week! Frat Brother Pours Me Water Instead of Spiking My Drink”, in 34th Street Magazine…. From the entry bruh girl
  • Only two cases of spontaneous tracheal rupture are reported, in adults, one due to acquired tracheobronchomalacia and other due to long term steroid use.2015 June 1, Saurabh Kumar, Sandeep Goel, Ashu Seith Bhalla, “Spontaneous Tracheal Rupture in a Case of Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD): A…. From the entry tracheobronchomalacia
  • Bearing in mind the relaxed, spontaneous nature of modern relationships, Seth and Maggie's first evening together was the cringiest, most awkward and embarrassing possible.2015, Beth Moran, I Hope You Dance, page 168. From the entry cringiest
  • 'Irreal' objects draw on our previous sensual experience but have never existed; they are created through the spontaneous intentional operations of the imagination.2012, T. Dant, Television and the Moral Imaginary: Society through the Small Screen, →ISBN. From the entry irreal

Meaning of spontaneous

  1. adjective Self-directed; happening or acting without external cause or instigation; proceeding from natural feeling, temperament, or momentary impulse.
  2. adjective Done by one's own free choice, or without planning.
  3. adjective Controlled and directed internally; self-active; spontaneous movement characteristic of living things.

Full definition of spontaneous

Questions about spontaneous in a sentence

How do you use spontaneous in a sentence?
Spontaneous is used as an adjective. For example: “He made a spontaneous offer of help.”
What is a short sentence with spontaneous?
“He made a spontaneous offer of help.”
What does spontaneous mean?
Spontaneous means self-directed; happening or acting without external cause or instigation; proceeding from natural feeling, temperament, or momentary impulse.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spontaneous (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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