na·ture
(nā́chər)
[Middle English, essential properties of a thing, from Old French, from Latin nātūra, from nātus past participle of nāscī, to be born.]
noun
- The material world and its phenomena.
- The forces and processes that produce and control all the phenomena of the material world: the laws of nature.
- The world of living things and the outdoors: the beauties of nature.
- A primitive state of existence, untouched and uninfluenced by civilization or artificiality: couldn't tolerate city life anymore and went back to nature.
- Theology Humankind's natural state as distinguished from the state of grace.
- A kind or sort: confidences of a personal nature.
- The essential characteristics and qualities of a person or thing: “She was only strong and sweet and in her nature when she was really deep in trouble” (Gertrude Stein)
- The fundamental character or disposition of a person; temperament: “Strange natures made a brotherhood of ill” (Percy Bysshe Shelley)
- The natural or real aspect of a person, place, or thing. See synonyms at disposition
- The processes and functions of the body.
