spontaneous
English
editEtymology
editLearned borrowing from Late Latin spontāneus.
Pronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /spɒnˈteɪ.ni.əs/
- (US) IPA(key): /spɑnˈteɪ.ni.əs/
- Rhymes: -eɪniəs
Audio (US): (file)
Adjective
editspontaneous (comparative more spontaneous, superlative most spontaneous)
- Self-generated; happening without any apparent external cause.
- Synonym: autonomous
- He made a spontaneous offer of help.
- a make spontaneous decision
- Done by one's own free choice, or without planning.
- Synonym: autonomous
- Proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external or conscious constraint.
- Synonym: autonomous
- 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, chapter 106, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume IV, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:
- 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.
- Sudden, without warning.
- Synonyms: abrupt, precipitous, subitaneous; see also Thesaurus:sudden
Derived terms
editTranslations
editself generated; happening without any apparent external cause
|
done by one's own free choice, or without planning
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proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external constraint
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arising from a momentary impulse
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controlled and directed internally
produced without being planted or without human labor
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. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Late Latin
- English learned borrowings from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English 4-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/eɪniəs
- Rhymes:English/eɪniəs/4 syllables
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
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