NATURAL, a. [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, nature 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. Locke.
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 of animals and vegetables; as, a natural death opposed to violent or premature.
9. Tender; affectionate by nature. Shak.
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 their husbands on this fatal day? Addison.
11. Illegitimate; born out of wedlock; as, a natural son.
12. Native; vernacular; as, one's natural language. Swift.
13. Derived from the study of the works of nature; as, natural knowledge. Addison.
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, electricity, galvanism, &c.

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. [Not in use.] Ralegh.
3. Gift of nature; natural quality. [Not in use.] B. Jonson. Wotton.

1. Fixed or determined by nature; pertaining to the constitution of a thing; belonging to native character; according to nature; essential; characteristic; not artificial, foreign, assumed, put on, or acquired; as, 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.
   
   

   With strong natural sense, and rare force of will. Macaulay.

2. A native; an aboriginal.
   
   
   [Obs.] Sir W. Raleigh.
3. Conformed to the order, laws, or actual facts, of nature; consonant to the methods of nature; according to the stated course of things, or in accordance with the laws which govern events, feelings, etc.; not exceptional or violent; legitimate; normal; regular; as, the natural consequence of crime; a natural death.
   
   

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

4. Natural gifts, impulses, etc.
   
   
   [Obs.] Fuller.
5. Having to do with existing system to things; dealing with, or derived from, the creation, or the world of matter and mind, as known by man; within the scope of human reason or experience; not supernatural; as, a natural law; natural science; history, theology.
   
   

   I call that natural religion which men might know . . . by the mere principles of reason, improved by consideration and experience, without the help of revelation. Bp. Wilkins.

6. One born without the usual powers of reason or understanding; an idiot.
   
   
   "The minds of naturals." Locke.
7. Conformed to truth or reality
   
   
   ; as: (a)
8. A character [***natural]] used to contradict, or to remove the effect of, a sharp or flat which has preceded it, and to restore the unaltered note.
9. Having the character or sentiments properly belonging to one's position; not unnatural in feelings.
   
   

   To leave his wife, to leave his babes, . . .
   He wants the natural touch. Shak.

10. Connected by the ties of consanguinity.
    
    
    "Natural friends." J. H. Newman.
11. Begotten without the sanction of law; born out of wedlock; illegitimate; bastard; as, a natural child.
12. Of or pertaining to the lower or animal nature, as contrasted with the higher or moral powers, or that which is spiritual; being in a state of nature; unregenerate.
    
    

    The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. 1 Cor. ii. 14.

13. Belonging to, to be taken in, or referred to, some system, in which the base is 1; -- said or certain functions or numbers; as, natural numbers, those commencing at 1; natural sines, cosines, etc., those taken in arcs whose radii are 1.
    
    

14. Produced by natural organs, as those of the human throat, in distinction from instrumental music.
    
    
    (b)