English Explanatory Dictionary

spontaneous

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Self-generated; happening without any apparent external cause.
  2. Done by one's own free choice, or without planning.
  3. Proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external or conscious constraint.
  4. Arising from a momentary impulse.
  5. Controlled and directed internally; self-active; spontaneous movement characteristic of living things.
  6. Produced without being planted or without human cultivation or labor.
  7. Sudden, without warning.
  8. Said or done without prior planning or prior writing.

Pronunciation

/spɒnˈteɪ.ni.əs/ /spɑnˈteɪ.ni.əs/ en-us-spontaneous.ogg

Word forms

spontaneous more spontaneous most spontaneous

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin spontāneus.

Synonyms

autonomous unwritten abrupt precipitous subitaneous precipitant precipitate spontaneous sudden suddent

Derived words

nonspontaneous semispontaneous spontaneity spontaneous abortion spontaneous combustion spontaneous fission spontaneous generation spontaneous human combustion spontaneously spontaneousness spontaneous order spontaneous pneumothorax subspontaneous unspontaneous
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