Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The quality or condition of being spontaneous.
  • noun Spontaneous behavior, impulse, or movement.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Spontaneous character or quality; that character of any action of any subject by virtue of which it takes place without being caused by anything distinguishable from the subject itself.
  • noun In biology, the fact of apparently automatic change in structure, or activity in function, of animals and plants, whereby new characters may be acquired, or certain actions performed, under no influence of external conditions or stimulus; animal or vegetable automatism.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality or state of being spontaneous, or acting from native feeling, proneness, or temperament, without constraint or external force.
  • noun The tendency to undergo change, characteristic of both animal and vegetable organisms, and not restrained or checked by the environment.
  • noun The tendency to activity of muscular tissue, including the voluntary muscles, when in a state of healthful vigor and refreshment.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable The quality of being spontaneous.
  • noun countable Spontaneous behaviour.
  • noun biology The tendency to undergo change, characteristic of both animal and vegetable organisms, and not restrained or checked by the environment.
  • noun biology The tendency to activity of muscular tissue, including the voluntary muscles, when in a state of healthful vigour and refreshment.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the quality of being spontaneous and coming from natural feelings without constraint

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Compare French spontanéité.

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