spontaneous
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
Late Latin spontāneus, from Latin sponte (suā) (“of one's free will, voluntarily”).
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /spɒnˈteɪ.ni.əs/
- (US) IPA(key): /spɑnˈteɪ.ni.əs/
- Rhymes: -eɪniəs
Audio (US) (file)
AdjectiveEdit
spontaneous (comparative more spontaneous, superlative most spontaneous)
- Self-generated; happening without any apparent external cause.
- He made a spontaneous offer of help.
- Done by one's own free choice, or without planning.
- Proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external or conscious constraint
- Arising from a momentary impulse
- Controlled and directed internally; self-active; spontaneous movement characteristic of living things
- Produced without being planted or without human cultivation or labor.
- 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, vol. IV, ch. 106:
- [H]e persisted in his design; and, because he would not make his wants known, actually subsisted for several days on hips, haws and sloes, and other spontaneous fruits which he gathered in the woods and fields.
- 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, vol. IV, ch. 106:
- Random.
- Sudden, without warning.
SynonymsEdit
- (self-generated): autonomous
- (done by one's own free choice): autonomous
- (proceeding from natural feeling...): autonomous
- (sudden, without warning): abrupt, precipitous, subitaneous; see also Thesaurus:sudden
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
self generated; happening without any apparent external cause
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done by one's own free choice, or without planning
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proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external constraint
arising from a momentary impulse
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controlled and directed internally
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produced without being planted or without human labor
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not apparently contrived or manipulated
random — see random
sudden, without warning
- 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.