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Definitions for: Natural
[n] (in craps) a first roll of 7 or 11 that immediately wins the stake
[n] a notation cancelling a previous sharp or flat
[n] someone regarded as certain to succeed; "he's a natural for the job"
[adj] unaffected and natural looking; "a lifelike pose"; "a natural reaction"
[adj] being talented through inherited qualities; "a natural leader"; "a born musician"; "an innate talent"
[adj] related by blood; not adopted; "natural parent"
[adj] in accordance with nature; relating to or concerning nature; "a very natural development"; "our natural environment"; "natural science"; "natural resources"; "natural cliffs"; "natural phenomena"
[adj] existing in or produced by nature; not artificial or imitation; "a natural pearl"; "natural gas"; "natural silk"; "natural blonde hair"; "a natural sweetener"; "natural fertilizers"
[adj] existing in or in conformity with nature or the observable world; neither supernatural nor magical; "a perfectly natural explanation"
[adj] (music) of a key containing no sharps or flats; "B natural"
[adj] (biology) functioning or occurring in a normal way; lacking abnormalities or deficiencies; "it's the natural thing to happen"; "natural immunity"; "a grandparent's natural affection for a grandchild"
[adj] (used especially of commodities) in the natural unprocessed condition; "natural yogurt"; "natural produce"; "raw wool"; "raw sugar"; "bales of rude cotton"
[adj] unthinking; prompted by (or as if by) instinct; "a cat's natural aversion to water"; "offering to help was as instinctive as breathing"
Webster (1913) Definition: Nat"u*ral (?; 135), a. [OE. naturel, F. naturel, fr.
L. naturalis, fr. natura. See Nature.]
1. Fixed or determined by nature; pertaining to the
constitution of a thing; belonging to native character;
according to nature; essential; characteristic; not
artifical, foreign, assumed, put on, or acquired; as, the
natural growth of animals or plants; the natural motion of
a gravitating body; natural strength or disposition; the
natural heat of the body; natural color.
With strong natural sense, and rare force of will.
--Macaulay.
2. Conformed to the order, laws, or actual facts, of nature;
consonant to the methods of nature; according to the
stated course of things, or in accordance with the laws
which govern events, feelings, etc.; not exceptional or
violent; legitimate; normal; regular; as, the natural
consequence of crime; a natural death.
What can be more natural than the circumstances in
the behavior of those women who had lost their
husbands on this fatal day? --Addison.
3. Having to do with existing system to things; dealing with,
or derived from, the creation, or the world of matter and
mind, as known by man; within the scope of human reason or
experience; not supernatural; as, a natural law; natural
science; history, theology.
I call that natural religion which men might know .
. . by the mere principles of reason, improved by
consideration and experience, without the help of
revelation. --Bp. Wilkins.
4. Conformed to truth or reality; as:
(a) Springing from true sentiment; not artifical or
exaggerated; -- said of action, delivery, etc.; as, a
natural gesture, tone, etc.
(b) Resembling the object imitated; true to nature;
according to the life; -- said of anything copied or
imitated; as, a portrait is natural.
5. Having the character or sentiments properly belonging to
one's position; not unnatural in feelings.
To leave his wife, to leave his babes, . . . He
wants the natural touch. --Shak.
6. Connected by the ties of consanguinity. ``Natural
friends.'' --J. H. Newman.
7. Begotten without the sanction of law; born out of wedlock;
illegitimate; bastard; as, a natural child.
8. Of or pertaining to the lower or animal nature, as
contrasted with the higher or moral powers, or that which
is spiritual; being in a state of nature; unregenerate.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God. --1 Cor. ii.
14.
9. (Math.) Belonging to, to be taken in, or referred to, some
system, in which the base is 1; -- said or certain
functions or numbers; as, natural numbers, those
commencing at 1; natural sines, cosines, etc., those taken
in arcs whose radii are 1.
10. (Mus.)
(a) Produced by natural organs, as those of the human
throat, in distinction from instrumental music.
(b) Of or pertaining to a key which has neither a flat
nor a sharp for its signature, as the key of C major.
(c) Applied to an air or modulation of harmony which
moves by easy and smooth transitions, digressing but
little from the original key. --Moore (Encyc. of
Music).
Natural day, the space of twenty-four hours. --Chaucer.
Natural fats, Natural gas, etc. See under Fat, Gas.
etc.
Natural Harmony (Mus.), the harmony of the triad or common
chord.
Natural history, in its broadest sense, a history or
description of nature as a whole, incuding the sciences of
botany, zo["o]logy, geology, mineralogy,
paleontology, chemistry, and physics. In recent
usage the term is often restricted to the sciences of
botany and zo["o]logy collectively, and sometimes to the
science of zoology alone.
Natural law, that instinctive sense of justice and of right
and wrong, which is native in mankind, as distinguished
from specifically revealed divine law, and formulated
human law.
Natural modulation (Mus.), transition from one key to its
relative keys.
Natural order. (Nat. Hist.) See under order.
Natural person. (Law) See under person, n.
Natural philosophy, originally, the study of nature in
general; in modern usage, that branch of physical science,
commonly called physics, which treats of the phenomena
and laws of matter and considers those effects only which
are unaccompanied by any change of a chemical nature; --
contrasted with mental and moral philosophy.
Natural scale (Mus.), a scale which is written without
flats or sharps. Model would be a preferable term, as less
likely to mislead, the so-called artificial scales (scales
represented by the use of flats and sharps) being equally
natural with the so-called natural scale
Natural science, natural history, in its broadest sense; --
used especially in contradistinction to mental or moral
science.
Natural selection (Biol.), a supposed operation of natural
laws analogous, in its operation and results, to designed
selection in breeding plants and animals, and resulting in
the survival of the fittest. The theory of natural
selection supposes that this has been brought about mainly
by gradual changes of environment which have led to
corresponding changes of structure, and that those forms
which have become so modified as to be best adapted to the
changed environment have tended to survive and leave
similarly adapted descendants, while those less perfectly
adapted have tended to die out though lack of fitness for
the environment, thus resulting in the survival of the
fittest. See Darwinism.
Natural system (Bot. & Zo["o]l.), a classification based
upon real affinities, as shown in the structure of all
parts of the organisms, and by their embryology.
It should be borne in mind that the natural system
of botany is natural only in the constitution of its
genera, tribes, orders, etc., and in its grand
divisions. --Gray.
Natural theology, or Natural religion, that part of
theological science which treats of those evidences of the
existence and attributes of the Supreme Being which are
exhibited in nature; -- distinguished from revealed
religion. See Quotation under Natural, a., 3.
Natural vowel, the vowel sound heard in urn, furl, sir,
her, etc.; -- so called as being uttered in the easiest
open position of the mouth organs. See Neutral vowel,
under Neutral and Guide to Pronunciation, [sect] 17.
Syn: See Native.
Nat"u*ral (?; 135), n.
1. A native; an aboriginal. [Obs.] --Sir W. Raleigh.
2. pl. Natural gifts, impulses, etc. [Obs.] --Fuller.
3. One born without the usual powers of reason or
understanding; an idiot. ``The minds of naturals.''
--Locke.
4. (Mus.) A character [[natural]] used to contradict, or to
remove the effect of, a sharp or flat which has preceded
it, and to restore the unaltered note.
Synonyms: biological, born(p), cancel, earthy, elemental, fresh(a), innate(p), instinctive, intelligent, lifelike, normal, physical, raw(a), rude(a), self-generated, spontaneous, unaffected, unbleached, uncolored, undyed, unprocessed
Antonyms: artificial, flat, sharp, supernatural, unnatural, unreal
See Also: achiever, cast, musical notation, natural, roll, succeeder, success, winner
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