nat·u·ral

(năch′ər-əl, năch′rəl)

adj.

1. Present in or produced by nature: a natural pearl.

2. Of, relating to, or concerning nature: a natural environment.

3. Conforming to the usual or ordinary course of nature: a natural death.

a. Not acquired; inherent: Love of power is natural to some people.

b. Having a particular character by nature: a natural leader.

c. Biology Not produced or changed artificially; not conditioned: natural immunity; a natural reflex.

5. Characterized by spontaneity and freedom from artificiality, affectation, or inhibitions. See Synonyms at naive.

6. Not altered, treated, or disguised: natural coloring; natural produce.

7. Faithfully representing nature or life.

8. Expected and accepted: "In Willie's mind marriage remained the natural and logical sequence to love" (Duff Cooper).

9. Established by moral certainty or conviction: natural rights.

10. Being in a state regarded as primitive, uncivilized, or unregenerate.

11.

a. Related genetically: the natural parents of the child.

b. Born to parents who have never been married to each other: the natural son of the king.

12. Mathematics Of or relating to positive integers, sometimes including zero.

13. Music

a. Not sharped or flatted.

b. Having no sharps or flats.

14. Relating to hair that is allowed to remain in an unaltered state: "Many tweets also attacked double standards that exist regarding black women's hair. Wearing extensions and weaves can be seen as traitorous or insecure, while wearing hair in a natural or traditionally African-inspired style ... can result in mocking criticism" (Mary Emily O'Hara).

a. One having all the qualifications necessary for success: You are a natural for this job.

b. One suited by nature for a certain purpose or function: She is a natural at mathematics.

2. Music

a. The sign (♮) placed before a note to cancel a preceding sharp or flat.

b. A note so affected.

3. A yellowish gray to pale orange yellow.

4. Games A combination in certain card and dice games that wins immediately.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin nātūrālis, from nātūra, nature; see nature.]

nat′u·ral·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Naturalness

(Her tight smile returned) as automatically as a gesundheit —Loren D. Estleman
(The doctor … a man who listened to other people’s hearts) as casually, as automatically, as he blew his own nose —Helen Hudson
As natural a part of her life as toothpaste —Julia Whedon
As natural as a vine grows —Babette Deutsch
(She was flushed, eager, and) as natural as daylight —Frank Swinnerton
As natural … as the falling of leaves —Edith Wharton
(A faith … as strong,) as natural, as irrational as the elements —Romain Gary
See Also: Sense
As natural as NutraSweet —Anon
(Had grown up believing that overcoming handicaps was) as natural as scratching your ear —Ira Berkow, New York Times/Sports of the Times, September 23, 1986
Berkow’s subject is Jim Plunkett, Raider quarterback.
As natural … as the passion for air or food or drink —Stephen McKenna
As natural as the process of digestion —Walter De La Mare
He [Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes] could no more stop it [wit flowing from him] than he could stop the blood flowing in his veins —Elizabeth Bowen
(His thoughts, his humor, his similes) rose as fast, as multitudinous, as irrepressible, as bubbles in the champagne, and nothing could prevent their coming to the surface —John T. Morse
The man whose wit is the subject of the comparison is Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Spontaneous as a child’s drawing —Anon
Spontaneous as a six-course sit-down dinner —Anon
Spontaneous as the song of a bird —W. H. Hudson
Spontaneous as the time of day —” St. Elsewhere,” TV segment, December 16, 1986
Unconscious as an oak tree of its growth —Anon
Unconscious as the loyalty of bees to their queen —Lacfadio Hearn
Unconscious as you grow your fingernails —George Bernard Shaw
Unnatural as generosity to a miser —Elyse Sommer
Unthinkingly as a child heaping sand on its mother at the beach —Anatole Broyard, New York Times Book Review, January 16, 1986

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	naturalness - the quality of being natural or based on natural principles; "he accepted the naturalness of death"; "the spontaneous naturalness of his manner" quality - an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone; "the quality of mercy is not strained"--Shakespeare unaffectedness - not affected; a personal manner that is not consciously constrained simmpleness, simplicity - absence of affectation or pretense unassumingness, sincerity - a quality of naturalness and simplicity; "the simple sincerity of folk songs" spontaneity, spontaneousness - the quality of being spontaneous and coming from natural feelings without constraint; "the spontaneity of his laughter" informality, ease - freedom from constraint or embarrassment; "I am never at ease with strangers" unpretentiousness - the quality of being natural and without pretensions naturalisation, naturalization - the quality of being brought into conformity with nature unnaturalness - the quality of being unnatural or not based on natural principles
	2.	naturalness - the quality of innocent naivete artlessness, ingenuousness, innocence naiveness, naivete, naivety - lack of sophistication or worldliness innocency - an innocent quality or thing or act; "the innocencies of childhood"
	3.	naturalness - the likeness of a representation to the thing represented; "engineers strove to increase the naturalness of recorded music" alikeness, likeness, similitude - similarity in appearance or character or nature between persons or things; "man created God in his own likeness"

naturalness

noun

1. unselfconsciousness, simplicity, openness, spontaneity, candour, frankness, genuineness, ingenuousness, artlessness, unpretentiousness, simpleness, spontaneousness Sidney's naturalness is the key to his charm.

2. realism, naturalism, verisimilitude, factualism The critics praised the naturalness of his acting.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

naturalness

noun

Freedom from constraint, formality, embarrassment, or awkwardness:

casualness, ease, easiness, informality, poise, spontaneity, unceremoniousness, unrestraint.

Translations

naturalness

[ˈnætʃrəlnɪs] N → naturalidad f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

naturalness

[ˈnætʃ^ərəlnɪs] n [behaviour, person] → naturel m
the naturalness of the acting → le jeu plein de naturel des acteursnatural resources npl → ressources fpl naturellesnatural selection n → sélection f naturellenatural wastage n → départs mpl naturels

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

naturalness

n → Natürlichkeit f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

naturalness

[ˈnætʃrəlnɪs] n → naturalezza

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

He spoke Catalonian, the Italian of Corsica and the French of Provence with the same easy naturalness. Dressed in shore-togs, a white starched shirt, black jacket, and round hat, as I took him once to see Dona Rita, he was extremely presentable.

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But it was an obstinate pair of shoulders; they could not seem to learn the trick of stooping with any sort of deceptive naturalness. The drill went on, I prompting and correcting:

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The very naturalness with which he said this startled Philip.

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Like many of us, he has been captivated by her naturalness, her naivete, her clear good eyes,--that look of nature that is always art!

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She came into his arms with all the graceful and perfect naturalness of a child who has wandered a little away from home .

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But this difficult conversation Anna directed with her usual tact and naturalness, and indeed she did so with actual enjoyment, as Darya Alexandrovna observed.

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That moment of naturalness was the crystallizing feather-touch: it shook flirtation into love.

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Like many other of his traits and mannerisms this was the result of environment rather than heredity or reversion, and even though he was outwardly a man, the Englishman and the girl were both impressed with the naturalness of the act.

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Her light flow of talk, and her lively familiarity of manner with a total stranger, were accompanied by an unaffected naturalness and an easy inborn confidence in herself and her position, which would have secured her the respect of the most audacious man breathing.

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"Did you find the journey tiring?" he asked in a voice that surprised him by its naturalness; and she answered that, on the contrary, she had seldom travelled with fewer discomforts.

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But with successive Latin, Medieval, and Renaissance writers in verse and prose the country characters and setting had become mere disguises, sometimes allegorical, for the expression of the very far from simple sentiments of the upper classes, and sometimes for their partly genuine longing, the outgrowth of sophisticated weariness and ennui, for rural naturalness. Sidney's very complicated tale of adventures in love and war, much longer than any of its successors, is by no means free from artificiality, but it finely mirrors his own knightly spirit and remains a permanent English classic.

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This "ease" or naturalness, in a literary style, it has long been the fashion to regard as ease in appearance alone--as a point of really difficult attainment.

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