spontaneous

spon·ta·ne·ous

adj \spän-ˈtā-nē-əs\

Definition of SPONTANEOUS

1

: proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external constraint

2

: arising from a momentary impulse

3

: controlled and directed internally : self-acting <spontaneous movement characteristic of living things>

4

: produced without being planted or without human labor : indigenous

5

: developing or occurring without apparent external influence, force, cause, or treatment

6

: not apparently contrived or manipulated : natural

— spon·ta·ne·ous·ly adverb

— spon·ta·ne·ous·ness noun

Examples of SPONTANEOUS

1. The comment was completely spontaneous.
2. He's a guy who's spontaneous and fun.
3. Shane has a lovely habit of paying us spontaneous visits: one time she brought over a jar of a pickle she'd recently put up; another time just a good story or two. —James Oseland, Saveur, December 2006
4. Cold viruses can damage the olfactory system directly. This loss of smell may last even after the cold is over. Sometimes the sense comes back as suddenly as it disappeared, perhaps because even as adults we generate new olfactory neurons. Spontaneous improvement might be a person's best hope, because there are no real proven treatments for reversing olfactory nerve damage. —Harvard Health Letter, September 2001
5. Peter Jakobsen of the European Space Agency, which built the Faint Object Camera, drew spontaneous applause at the January meeting when he showed an image of supernova SN1987A from the instrument. —Kristin Leutwyler, Scientific American, March 1994

Origin of SPONTANEOUS

Late Latin spontaneus, from Latin sponte of one's free will, voluntarily

First Known Use: 1653

Related to SPONTANEOUS

Synonyms: instinctive, instinctual, involuntary, knee-jerk, mechanic, mechanical, robotic, automatic

Antonyms: nonmechanical

Related Words: conditioned, natural, Pavlovian, reactive, reflex, simple, subliminal, unconscious, unforced, visceral; blind, inadvertent, unintended, unintentional, unwilling, unwitting; abrupt, quick, ready, sudden; ad-lib, extemporaneous, extempore, impromptu, improvised, offhand, offhanded, off-the-cuff, snap, spur-of-the-moment, unconsidered, unplanned, unpremeditated, unprepared, unprompted, unreasoned, unrehearsed, unstudied; casual, chance, chancy, haphazard, hasty, hit-or-miss, impetuous, impulsive, mindless, random, rash

Near Antonyms: calculated, conscious, cultivated, deliberate, designed, intended, intentional, predetermined, prepared, projected, refined, rehearsed, volitional, voluntary, willed, willful (or wilful); advised, aforethought, careful, considered, foresighted, forethoughtful, measured, meticulous, reasoned, studied, thoughtful

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Synonym Discussion of SPONTANEOUS

spontaneous, impulsive, instinctive, automatic, mechanical mean acting or activated without deliberation. spontaneous implies lack of prompting and connotes naturalness <a spontaneous burst of applause>. impulsive implies acting under stress of emotion or spirit of the moment <impulsive acts of violence>. instinctive stresses action involving neither judgment nor will <blinking is an instinctive reaction>. automatic implies action engaging neither the mind nor the emotions and connotes a predictable response <his denial was automatic>. mechanical stresses the lifeless, often perfunctory character of the response <a mechanical teaching method>.

Rhymes with SPONTANEOUS

cutaneous, extraneous