Open main menu
Wiktionary

nature

See also: Nature

Contents

EnglishEdit

 
English Wikipedia has articles on:
Wikipedia Wikipedia

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English nature, natur, borrowed from Old French nature, from Latin nātūra (“birth, origin, natural constitution or quality”), future participle from perfect passive participle (g)natus (“born”), from deponent verb (g)nasci (“to be born, originate”) + future participle suffix -urus. Displaced native Middle English cunde, icunde (“nature, property, type, genus, character”) (from Old English ġecynd), Middle English lund (“nature, disposition”) (from Old Norse lund), Middle English burthe (“nature, birth, nation”) (from Old English ġebyrd and Old Norse *byrðr). More at kind.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

nature (countable and uncountable, plural natures)

  1. (uncountable) The natural world; that which consists of all things unaffected by or predating human technology, production, and design. E.G. the ecosystem, the natural environment, virgin ground, unmodified species, laws of nature.
    Nature never lies (i.e. tells untruths).
    • (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Macaulay
      Nature has caprices which art cannot imitate.
    • 1891, Oscar Wilde, The Decay of Lying
      Nature has good intentions, of course, but, as Aristotle once said, she cannot carry them out. When I look at a landscape I cannot help seeing all its defects.
  2. The innate characteristics of a thing. What something will tend by its own constitution, to be or do. Distinct from what might be expected or intended.
    • 1920, Herman Cyril McNeile, Bulldog Drummond, Ch.1:
      Being by nature of a cheerful disposition, the symptom did not surprise his servant, late private of the same famous regiment, who was laying breakfast in an adjoining room.
    • 1869, Horatio Alger, Jr., Mark the Match Boy, Ch.16:
      Mark hardly knew whether to believe this or not. He already began to suspect that Roswell was something of a humbug, and though it was not in his nature to form a causeless dislike, he certainly did not feel disposed to like Roswell.
  3. The summary of everything that has to do with biological, chemical and physical states and events in the physical universe.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton
      I oft admire / How Nature, wise and frugal, could commit / Such disproportions.
    • 2012 January 1, Robert M. Pringle, “How to Be Manipulative”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 31:
      As in much of biology, the most satisfying truths in ecology derive from manipulative experimentation. Tinker with nature and quantify how it responds.
  4. Conformity to that which is natural, as distinguished from that which is artificial, or forced, or remote from actual experience.
  5. Kind, sort; character; quality.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden
      A dispute of this nature caused mischief.
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0147:
      Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations.
  6. (obsolete) Physical constitution or existence; the vital powers; the natural life.
  7. (obsolete) Natural affection or reverence.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Alexander Pope
      Have we not seen / The murdering son ascend his parent's bed, / Through violated nature force his way?

SynonymsEdit

Derived termsEdit

Terms derived from nature

Pages starting with "nature".

Related termsEdit

Terms etymologically related to nature

TranslationsEdit

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

VerbEdit

nature (third-person singular simple present natures, present participle naturing, simple past and past participle natured)

  1. (obsolete) To endow with natural qualities.

Further readingEdit

AnagramsEdit

EsperantoEdit

AdverbEdit

nature

  1. naturally

FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old French nature, borrowed from Latin nātūra.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

nature f (plural natures)

  1. nature
  2. (grammar) lexical category

Derived termsEdit

AdjectiveEdit

 
une brioche nature

nature (plural natures)

  1. plain, unseasoned
    Une brioche nature ou sucrée ?
    File-moi un yaourt nature s’il te plait.
  2. bareback, raw dog
    Une fellation nature.

Further readingEdit

ItalianEdit

NounEdit

nature f

  1. plural of natura

AdjectiveEdit

nature (invariable)

  1. natural

AnagramsEdit

LatinEdit

ParticipleEdit

nātūre

  1. vocative masculine singular of naturus

Middle DutchEdit

EtymologyEdit

Borrowed from Old French nature, from Latin nātūra.

NounEdit

nature f

  1. nature, force of nature
  2. laws of nature, natural order
  3. nature, innate characteristics
  4. kind, sort
  5. origin
  6. sexual fertility, sex drive

InflectionEdit

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

DescendantsEdit

Further readingEdit

  • “nature”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
  • “nature”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929

Middle EnglishEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old French nature, from Latin nātūra.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

nature (plural natures)

  1. The Universe, existence, creation
  2. nature, the natural world
  3. natural abilities
  4. natural inevitability, nature (as opposed to nurture)
  5. natural morals, natural law
  6. natural needs or requirements
  7. nature, state, condition
  8. species, kind, type
  9. Nature (allegory)

Related termsEdit

DescendantsEdit

ReferencesEdit

Middle FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old French nature, borrowed from Latin nātūra.

NounEdit

nature f (plural natures)

  1. nature

DescendantsEdit

NovialEdit

EtymologyEdit

Latin nātūra.

NounEdit

nature c (plural natures)

  1. nature

Old FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

Borrowed from Latin nātūra.

NounEdit

nature f (oblique plural natures, nominative singular nature, nominative plural natures)

  1. nature (natural world; nonhuman world)
    • circa 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, 'Érec et Énide':
      De cesti tesmoingne Nature,
      Qu'onques si bele creature
      Ne fu veüe an tot le monde.
      Nature can testify
      That never such a beautiful creature
      Was seen in the whole world
  2. nature (character; qualities)

DescendantsEdit

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=nature&oldid=52406839"