nature

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The material world and its phenomena.
2. n. The forces and processes that produce and control all the phenomena of the material world: the laws of nature.
3. n. The world of living things and the outdoors: the beauties of nature.
4. n. A primitive state of existence, untouched and uninfluenced by civilization or artificiality: couldn't tolerate city life anymore and went back to nature.
5. n. Theology Humankind's natural state as distinguished from the state of grace.
6. n. A kind or sort: confidences of a personal nature.
7. n. 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).
8. n. The fundamental character or disposition of a person; temperament: "Strange natures made a brotherhood of ill” ( Percy Bysshe Shelley).
9. n. The natural or real aspect of a person, place, or thing. See Synonyms at disposition.
10. n. The processes and functions of the body.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Birth; origin; parentage; original stock.
2. n. The forces or processes of the material world, conceived of as an agency intermediate between the Creator and the world, producing all organisms and preserving the regular order of things: as, in the old dictum, “nature abhors a vacuum.” In this sense nature is often persouified.
3. n. The metaphysical principle of life; the power of growth; that which causes organisms to develop each in its predeterminate way. Aristotle defines nature as tne principle of motion in those things that move themselves, meaning by motion especially generation and corruption. Inasmuch as the most striking characteristic of growth is its regularity, nature is also conceived by Aristotle as the principle of inward necessity, as opposed to constraint on the one hand and to chance or freedom on the other. Hence nature is in literature frequently contrasted with fate and with compulsion, as well as with fortune and free election.
4. n. Cel. Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune. … Those that she makes fair she scarce mates honest, and those that she makes honest she makes very ill-favouredly.
5. n. . Cause; occasion; that which produces anything.
6. n. The material and spiritual universe, as distinguished from the Creator; the system of things of whieh man forms a part; creation, especially that part of it which more immediately surrounds man and affects his senses, as mountains, seas, rivers, woods, etc.: as, the beauties of nature; in a restricted sense, whatever is produced without artificial aid, and exists unchanged by man, and is thus opposed to art.
7. n. Hence That which is conformed to nature or to truth and reality, as distinguished from that which is artificial, forced, conventional, or remote from actual experience; naturalness.
8. n. Inherent constitution, property, or quality: essential character, quality, or kind; the qualities or attributes whieh constitute a being or thing what it is, and distinguish it from all others; also, kind; sort; species; category: as, the nature of the soul; the divine nature; it is the nature of fire to burn; the compensation was in the nature of a fee.
9. n. An original, wild, undomesticated condition, as of an animal or a plant; also, the primitive condition of man antecedent to institutions, especially to political institutions: as, to live in a state of nature.
10. n. The primitive aboriginal instincts, qualities, and tendencies common to mankind of all races and in all ages, as unchanged or uninfluenced by civilization; especially, the instinctive or spontaneous sense of justice, benevolence, affection, self-preservation, love of show, etc., common to mankind; naturalness of thought, feeling, or action; humanity.
11. n. The physical or moral constitution of man; physical or moral being; the personality.
12. n. Inborn or innate character, disposition, or inclination; inherent bent or disposition; individual constitution or temperament; inbred or natural endowments, as opposed to acquired; hence, by metonymy, a person so endowed: as, we instinctively look up to a superior nature.
13. n. The vital powers of man; vitality; vital force; life; also, natural course of life; lifetime.
14. n. In theology, the natural unregenerate state of the soul; moral character in its original condition, unaffected by grace.
15. n. Conscience.
16. n. Spontaneity. abandon; felicity; truth; naturalness.
17. n. Kindly disposition: a natural disposition such that one does not readily take or give offense; an easy, indulgent spirit.
18. n. In theology, in a state of sin; unregencrated.
19. n. The regular course of human life.
20. n. See law, 3
21. Natural; growing spontaneously: as, nature grass; nature hay.
22. To endow with distinctive natural qualities.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable The natural world; consisting of all things unaffected by or predating human technology, production and design. e.g. the natural environment, virgin ground, unmodified species, laws of nature.
2. n. The innate characteristics of a thing. What something will tend by its own constitution, to be or do. Distinct from what might be expected or intended.
3. n. The summary of everything that has to do with biological, chemical and physical states and events in the physical universe.
4. v. obsolete To endow with natural qualities.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The existing system of things; the universe of matter, energy, time and space; the physical world; all of creation. Contrasted with the world of mankind, with its mental and social phenomena.
2. n. The personified sum and order of causes and effects; the powers which produce existing phenomena, whether in the total or in detail; the agencies which carry on the processes of creation or of being; -- often conceived of as a single and separate entity, embodying the total of all finite agencies and forces as disconnected from a creating or ordering intelligence.
3. n. The established or regular course of things; usual order of events; connection of cause and effect.
4. n. Conformity to that which is natural, as distinguished from that which is artificial, or forced, or remote from actual experience.
5. n. The sum of qualities and attributes which make a person or thing what it is, as distinct from others; native character; inherent or essential qualities or attributes; peculiar constitution or quality of being.
6. n. Kind, sort; character; quality.
7. n. Physical constitution or existence; the vital powers; the natural life.
8. n. Natural affection or reverence.
9. n. Constitution or quality of mind or character.
10. v. obsolete To endow with natural qualities.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the complex of emotional and intellectual attributes that determine a person's characteristic actions and reactions
2. n. a particular type of thing
3. n. the natural physical world including plants and animals and landscapes etc.
4. n. the essential qualities or characteristics by which something is recognized
5. n. a causal agent creating and controlling things in the universe