From Middle English natural, borrowed from Old French natural, naturel, from Latin nātūrālis, from nātus, the perfect participle of nāscor.

• enPR: năchʹ(ə)rəl, IPA: /ˈnæt͡ʃ(ə)ɹəl/

natural

1. Existing in nature.
   1. Existing in the nature of a person or thing; innate, not acquired or learned. [from 14th c.]
      • 1726 October 27, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver's Travels], London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC ↗, (please specify |part=I to IV):

        The natural Love of Life gave me some inward Motions of Joy.

   2. Normally associated with a particular person or thing; inherently related to the nature of a thing or creature. [from 14th c.]

      The species will be under threat if its natural habitat is destroyed.

   3. As expected; reasonable, normal; naturally arising from the given circumstances. [from 14th c.]

      It's natural for business to be slow on Tuesdays.

      His prison sentence was the natural consequence of a life of crime.

   4. Formed by nature; not manufactured or created by artificial processes. [from 15th c.]
   5. Pertaining to death brought about by disease or old age, rather than by violence, accident etc. [from 16th c.]

      She died of natural causes.

   6. Having an innate ability to fill a given role or profession, or display a specified character. [from 16th c.]
      • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC ↗:

        Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.

   7. (maths)
      1. Designating a standard trigonometric function of an angle, as opposed to the logarithmic function. [from 17th c.]
      2. (algebra) Closed under submodules, direct sums, and injective hulls.
   8. (music) Neither sharp nor flat. Denoted ♮. [from 18th c.]

      There's a wrong note here: it should be C natural instead of C sharp.

   9. Containing no artificial or man-made additives; especially (of food) containing no colourings, flavourings or preservatives. [from 19th c.]

      Natural food is healthier than processed food.

   10. Pertaining to a decoration that preserves or enhances the appearance of the original material; not stained or artificially coloured. [from 19th c.]
   11. Pertaining to a fabric still in its undyed state, or to the colour of undyed fabric. [from 19th c.]
   12. (dice) Pertaining to a dice roll before bonuses or penalties have been applied to the result.
   13. (bodybuilding) Not having used anabolic steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.

       Antonyms: enhanced

   14. (bridge) Bidding in an intuitive way that reflects one's actual hand.

       Antonyms: artificial, conventional

2. Pertaining to birth or descent; native.
   1. Having a given status (especially of authority) by virtue of birth. [14th–19th c.]
      • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene i]:

        Whom should he follow but his naturall king.

      • 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC ↗:

        I am thy creature, and I will be even mild and docile to my natural lord and king, if thou wilt also perform thy part, the which thou owest me.

   2. Related genetically but not legally to one's father; born out of wedlock, illegitimate. [from 15th c.]
      • 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book III, chapter 26:

        Mrs Taft […] had got it into her head that Mr Lydgate was a natural son of Bulstrode's, a fact which seemed to justify her suspicions of evangelical laymen.

      • 1990, Roy Porter, English Society in the 18th Century, Penguin, published 1991, page 264:

        Dr Erasmus Darwin set up his two illegitimate daughters as the governesses of a school, noting that natural children often had happier (because less pretentious) upbringings than legitimate.

   3. Related by birth; genetically related. [from 16th c.]

• (exists in an ecosystem) see Thesaurus:innate or Thesaurus:native
• (as expected) inevitable, necessary, reasonable; See also Thesaurus:inevitable
• (without adjustment) see Thesaurus:raw
• (connected by consanguinity) see Thesaurus:consanguine
• (born out of wedlock) see Thesaurus:illegitimate
• (without a condom) see Thesaurus:condomless

• (antonym(s) of “exists in an ecosystem”): aberrant, abnormal, artificial
• (antonym(s) of “as expected”): see Thesaurus:strange
• (antonym(s) of “without additives”): processed

• Russian: приро́дный

• French: naturel
• German: natürlich
• Italian: naturale
• Portuguese: natural
• Russian: приро́дный
• Spanish: natural

• French: naturel
• Italian: naturale
• Portuguese: natural
• Russian: натура́льный
• Spanish: natural

• French: normal, naturel
• Italian: naturale
• Portuguese: normal
• Russian: есте́ственный

• French: bécarre
• Spanish: natural

• German: natürlich, naturwüchsig

• German: naturfarben, naturfarbig

natural (plural naturals)

1. (now rare) A native inhabitant of a place, country etc. [from 16th c.]
2. (music) A note that is not or is no longer to be modified by an accidental. [from 17th c.]
3. (music) The symbol ♮ used to indicate such a natural note.
4. One with an innate talent at or for something. [from 18th c.]

   He's a natural on the saxophone.

5. An almost white colour, with tints of grey, yellow or brown; originally that of natural fabric. [from 20th c.]

    

6. (archaic) One with a simple mind; a fool or idiot.

   Synonyms: half-natural

   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene iv], page 62 ↗, column 1:

     Why is not this better now, then groning for Loue, now art thou ſociable, now art thou Romeo : now art thou what thou art, by Art as well as by Nature, for this driueling Loue is like a great Naturall, that runs lolling vp and downe to hid his bable in a hole.

   • 1633, A Banqvet of Jests: or, Change of Cheare. Being a collection, of Moderne Ieſts. Witty Ieeres. Pleaſant Taunts. Merry Tales. The Second Part newly publiſhed, page 30:

     A Noble-man tooke a great liking to a naturall, and had covenanted with his parents to take him from them and to keepe him for his pleaſure, and demanding of the Ideot if he would ſerve him, he made him this anſwere, My Father ſaith he, got me to be his foole of my mother, now if you long to have a foole; go & without doubt you may get one of your owne wife.

7. (colloquial, chiefly UK) One's life.
   • 1929, Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts of Fortune, Vintage, published 2014, page 155:

     ‘Sergeant-Major Robinson came in in the middle of it, and you've never seen a man look more surprised in your natural.’

8. (US, colloquial) A hairstyle for people with Afro-textured hair in which the hair is not straightened or otherwise treated.
9. (slang, chiefly in plural) A breast which has not been modified.
10. (bodybuilding) Someone who has not used anabolic steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.

    Synonyms: natty

    • 2010, Gregg Valentino, Nathan Jendrick, Death, Drugs, and Muscle:

      For so long I stayed natural because it was a sense of pride to me that as a natural I was still competing and beating guys who were juicing up.

11. (craps) A roll of two dice with a score of 7 or 11 on the comeout roll.

• French: bécarre
• Italian: bequadro
• Portuguese: bequadro
• Russian: бека́р
• Spanish: becuadro

• German: Naturtalent

natural

1. (colloquial, dialect) Naturally; in a natural manner.