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NATURE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The complex of emotional and intellectual attributes that determine a person's characteristic actions and reactions
Example:
it is his nature to help others
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("nature" is a kind of...):
trait (a distinguishing feature of your personal nature)
Attribute:
good-natured (having an easygoing and cheerful disposition)
ill-natured (having an irritable and unpleasant disposition)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "nature"):
animal nature; animality (the physical (or animal) side of a person as opposed to the spirit or intellect)
disposition; temperament (your usual mood)
complexion ((obsolete) a combination of elements (of dryness and warmth or of the four humors) that was once believed to determine a person's health and temperament)
sociality (the tendency to associate with others and to form social groups)
Holonyms ("nature" is a part of...):
personality (the complex of all the attributes--behavioral, temperamental, emotional and mental--that characterize a unique individual)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The essential qualities or characteristics by which something is recognized
Example:
the true nature of jealousy
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("nature" is a kind of...):
quality (an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone)
Meronyms (parts of "nature"):
characteristic (a distinguishing quality)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A particular type of thing
Example:
matters of a personal nature
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("nature" is a kind of...):
type (a subdivision of a particular kind of thing)
Sense 4
Meaning:
The natural physical world including plants and animals and landscapes etc.
Example:
they tried to preserve nature as they found it
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
Hypernyms ("nature" is a kind of...):
cosmos; creation; existence; macrocosm; universe; world (everything that exists anywhere)
Sense 5
Meaning:
A causal agent creating and controlling things in the universe
Example:
nature has seen to it that men are stronger than women
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("nature" is a kind of...):
causal agency; causal agent; cause (any entity that produces an effect or is responsible for events or results)
Context examples:
For my own part, said Isabella, my wishes are so moderate that the smallest income in nature would be enough for me.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
I had opened the volume with some expectation of a revelation, though of what nature I could not imagine.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
His very clothes seemed to partake of the hospitable nature of the wearer.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
From every gesture and expression I could see that he was a reserved, self-contained man, with a dash of pride in his nature, more likely to hide his wounds than to expose them.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It is indicated for patients with periodontal disease and is therapeutic, not prophylactic, in nature.
(Periodontal Scaling and Root Planing, NCI Thesaurus)
A pancreatic lesion microscopically resembling pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia-1A, however the neoplastic nature of the pathologic process has not been unambiguously established.
(Pancreatic Intraepithelial Neoplasia/Lesion-1A, NCI Thesaurus)
Phosphatidic acids thus have a polar head and apolar tails, and occur in cell membranes throughout nature.
(Phosphatidic Acid, NCI Thesaurus)
They penetrate into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding-places.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
A coded value representing the state (solid, liquid, gas) and nature of the package.
(Package Form Code, NCI Thesaurus)
A disorder that affects the small or large intestine and is non-neoplastic in nature.
(Non-Neoplastic Intestinal Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)
