nature

• natuer (obsolete)

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.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈneɪtʃə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈneɪtʃɚ/
• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /ˈnɛːtʃɐ/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈnæɪ̯tʃə/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈnæetʃɘ/, [ˈnæetʃɜ~ˈnɐetʃɜ]

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• Rhymes: -eɪtʃə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: na‧ture

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.
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.

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.
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     my days of nature

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     Oppressed nature sleeps.

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?

• (innate characteristics of a thing): quintessence, whatness; See also Thesaurus:essence

Pages starting with "nature".

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

1. (obsolete) To endow with natural qualities.

• nature in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• nature in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• "nature" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 219.

• aunter, natuer, tea urn, tea-urn, unrate

nature

1. naturally

From Old French nature, borrowed from Latin nātūra.

• IPA^(key): /na.tyʁ/

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nature f (plural natures)

1. nature
2. (grammar) lexical category

• nature morte

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.

• “nature” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

nature f

1. plural of natura

nature (invariable)

1. natural

• neutra

nātūre

1. vocative masculine singular of naturus

Borrowed from Old French nature, from Latin nātūra.

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

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• Dutch: natuur
• Limburgish: netuur, netuuer

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

• natur, natour, nateure, nater

From Old French nature, from Latin nātūra.

• IPA^(key): /naːˈtiu̯r/

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)

• natural

• English: nature
• Scots: natur, naitur, naeter, nature

• “nātūr(e (n.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-02.

From Old French nature, borrowed from Latin nātūra.

nature f (plural natures)

1. nature

• French: nature

Latin nātūra.

nature c (plural natures)

1. nature

Borrowed from Latin nātūra.

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)

• Middle English: nature
  • English: nature
• Middle French: nature
  • French: nature