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spontaneous

6 ENTRIES FOUND:

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

Origin of SPONTANEOUS

Late Latin spontaneus, from Latin sponte of one's free will, voluntarily
First Known Use: 1653

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

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