Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Happening or arising without apparent external cause; self-generated.
- adj. Arising from a natural inclination or impulse and not from external incitement or constraint.
- adj. Unconstrained and unstudied in manner or behavior.
- adj. Growing without cultivation or human labor.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Proceeding from a conscious or unconscious internal impulse; occurring or done without the intervention of external causes; in a restricted sense, springing from one's own desire or volition, apart from any external suggestion or incitement. Of late the employment of spontaneous in the sense of ‘irreflective’ or ‘not controlled by a definite purpose’ is creeping in from the French; but this is an objectionable use of the term.
- Growing naturally, without previous human care.
- Growing as native; indigenous.
- In biology, instinctive or automatic, as some actions of animals which depend upon no external stimulus and are performed without apparent motive or purpose; uninfluenced by external conditions, as a change in structural character. Compare spontaneity, 2. Spontaneous actions may be either voluntary, in a usual sense, as the gambols of puppies or kittens, or involuntary and quite uncontrollable by the will. Of the latter class, some are abnormal, as spontaneous (in distinction from
induced ) somnambulism, and these are also calledidiopathic . - Synonyms Willing, etc. (see voluntary), instinctive, unbidden.
Wiktionary
- adj. Self generated; happening without any apparent external cause.
- adj. Done by one's own free choice, or without planning.
- adj. proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external constraint
- adj. arising from a momentary impulse
- adj. controlled and directed internally : self-active : spontaneous movement characteristic of living things
- adj. produced without being planted or without human labor : indigenous
- adj. not apparently contrived or manipulated : natural
- adj. Random.
- adj. Sudden, without warning.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Proceeding from natural feeling, temperament, or disposition, or from a native internal proneness, readiness, or tendency, without constraint.
- adj. Proceeding from, or acting by, internal impulse, energy, or natural law, without external force
- adj. Produced without being planted, or without human labor.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. said or done without having been planned or written in advance
- adj. happening or arising without apparent external cause
Etymologies
- From Late Latin spontāneus, of one's own accord, from Latin sponte; see (s)pen- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Thus, the term spontaneous order may be used to refer strictly to voluntary orders — that is, forms of social coordination which emerge from the free actions of many different people, as opposed to coordination that arises from some people being forced to do what other people tell them to do.”
“Darwin, I beliieve used the term spontaneous variations.”
Dembski, secret handshakes and Darwinian theory - The Panda's Thumb
“The term spontaneous abortion is defined in the “Management of Spontaneous Abortion” by Dr. Greibel, Dr Halvorsen, Dr Golemon, and Dr. Day.”
“Representatives of the state government say the state doesn't back the group, which they call a spontaneous movement by people defending themselves from the Naxalites.”
The Wall Street Journal: Indian Rights Activist, Freed on Bail, Vows to Continue Work
“You know, we have a lot of new volunteers who have -- they're just what we call spontaneous volunteers.”
“We think that when we deal with medicine in brain first, the real source of what he calls spontaneous healing is brain chemistry, and that when we change brain chemistry, we change the mind and facilitate these spontaneous healings and transformations of human health.”
“One thing sure," continued the farmer, a little uneasily, "that fire must have been caused by what they call spontaneous combustion; or else somebody set it on purpose.”
Boy Scouts on a Long Hike Or, To the Rescue in the Black Water Swamps
“The immediate force which works this change, the life principle of things, is, in the case of organic beings, a subtle something which we call spontaneous variation.”
“They'd try to break him with what I call spontaneous guerrilla raids, a lot of people died.”
“Mr. Armour said it's difficult to determine the environmental impact of what he calls "spontaneous social trails.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘spontaneous’.
writer723 [spontaneous:
–adjective
Happening or arising without apparent external cause; self-generated. Arising from a natural inclination or impulse and not from external incitement or constraint.] Apr 17, 2011