King James Bible Dictionary

NATURAL, adjective [to be born or produced]

1. Pertaining to nature; produced or effected by nature, or by the laws of growth, formation or motion impressed on bodies or beings by divine power. Thus we speak of the natural growth of animals or plants; the natural motion of a gravitating body; natural strength or disposition; the natural heat of the body; natural color; natural beauty. In this sense, natural is opposed to artificial or acquired.

2. According to the stated course of things. Poverty and shame are the natural consequences of certain vices.

3. Not forced; not far fetched; such as is dictated by nature. The gestures of the orator are natural

4. According to the life; as a natural representation of the face.

5. Consonant to nature.

Fire and warmth go together, and so seem to carry with them as natural an evidence as self-evident truths themselves.

6. Derived from nature, as opposed to habitual. The love of pleasure is natural ; the love of study is usually habitual or acquired.

7. Discoverable by reason; not revealed; as natural religion.

8. Produced or coming in the ordinary course of things, or the progress or animals and vegetables; as a natural death; opposed to violent or premature.

9. Tender; affectionate by nature.

10. Unaffected; unassumed; according to truth and reality.

What can be more natural than the circumstances of the behavior of those women who had lost heir husbands on this fatal day?

11. Illegitimate; born out of wedlock; as a natural son.

12. Native; vernacular; as ones natural language.

13. Derived from the study of the works or nature; as natural knowledge.

14. A natural note, in music, is that which is according to the usual order of the scale; opposed to flat and sharp notes, which are called artificial.

NATURAL history, in its most extensive sense, is the description of whatever is created, or of the whole universe, including the heavens and the earth, and all the productions of the earth. But more generally, natural history is limited to a description of the earth and its productions, including zoology, botany, geology, mineralogy, meteorology, _ c.

NATURAL philosophy, the science of material natural bodies, of their properties, powers and motions. It is distinguished from intellectual and moral philosophy, which respect the mind or understanding of man and the qualities of actions. natural philosophy comprehends mechanics, hydrostatics, optics, astronomy, chimistry, magnetism, eletricity, galvanism, _ c.

NATURAL, noun

1. An idiot; one born without the usual powers of reason or understanding. This is probably elliptical for natural fool.

2. A native; an original inhabitant.

3. Gift of nature; natural quality.

See Religion, Natural
Religion, Natural

NATURALISM, noun Mere state of nature.

NATURALIST, noun One that studies natural history and philosophy or physics; one that is versed in natural history or philosophy. It is more generally applied to one that is versed in natural history.

Acts 22:28; Ephesians 2:12; Ephesians 2:19

NATURALIZATION, noun [See Naturalize] The act of investing an alien with the rights and privileges of a native subject or citizen. naturalization in Great Britain is only by act of parliament. In the United States, it is by act of Congress, vesting certain tribunals with the power.

NATURALIZE, verb transitive [from natural, nature.]

1. To confer on an alien the rights and privileges of a native subject or citizen; to adopt foreigners into a nation or state, and place them in the condition of natural born subjects.

2. To make natural; to render easy and familiar by custom and habit; as, custom naturalizes labor or study.

3. To adapt; to make suitable; to acclimate; as, to naturalize one to a climate.

4. To receive or adopt as native, natural or vernacular; to make our own; as, to naturalize foreign words.

5. To accustom; to habituate; as, to naturalize the vine to a cold climate.

NATURALIZED, participle passive Invested with the privileges of natives; rendered easy and familiar; adapted to a climate; acclimated; received as native.

NATURALIZING, participle present tense Vesting with the rights of native subjects; making easy; acclimating; adopting.

NATURALLY, adverb

1. According to nature; by the force or impulse of nature; not by art or habit. We are naturally prone to evil.

2. According to nature; without affectation; with just representation; according to life.

3. According to the usual course of things; as, the effect or consequence naturally follows.

4. Spontaneously; without art or cultivation. Every plant must have grown naturally in some place or other.

NATURALNESS, noun

1. The state of being given or produced by nature; as the naturalness of desire.

2. Conformity to nature, or to truth and reality; not affectation ; as the naturalness of the eyebrows.

NATURALS, noun plural Among physicians, whatever belongs naturally to an animal; opposed to non-naturals. [ It may perhaps be sometimes used in the singular.]