SPONTANEOUS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Spontaneous

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/spɑntˈeɪniəs/ Listen

adjective

Spontaneous adj.

1.

Proceeding from natural feeling, temperament, or disposition, or from a native internal proneness, readiness, or tendency, without constraint; as, a spontaneous gift or proposition.

2.

Proceeding from, or acting by, internal impulse, energy, or natural law, without external force; as, spontaneous motion; spontaneous growth.

3.

Produced without being planted, or without human labor; as, a spontaneous growth of wood.

Spontaneous combustion, combustion produced in a substance by the evolution of heat through the chemical action of its own elements; as, the spontaneous combustion of waste matter saturated with oil.

Spontaneous generation. (Biol.) See under Generation.

Synonyms: Voluntary; uncompelled; willing. Spontaneous, Voluntary. What is voluntary is the result of a volition, or act of choice; it therefore implies some degree of consideration, and may be the result of mere reason without excited feeling. What is spontaneous springs wholly from feeling, or a sudden impulse which admits of no reflection; as, a spontaneous burst of applause. Hence, the term is also applied to things inanimate when they are produced without the determinate purpose or care of man. "Abstinence which is but voluntary fasting, and... exercise which is but voluntary labor." "Spontaneous joys, where nature has its play, The soul adopts, and owns their firstborn away."

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Etymology of 'Spontaneous'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Spontaneous" Quotes from Famous Books

... her is that she was not yet one-and-twenty. It was not, however, wholly from submission to the interested malevolence of others that she had shown herself the enemy of the great financier and statesman. She had a spontaneous dislike to the retrenchments which necessarily formed a great portion of his economical measures; not as interfering with the indulgence of any extravagant tastes of her own, but as restraining her power of ...

— The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France • Charles Duke Yonge

... water. The fish were, no doubt, about to move down-stream to the sea, for all headed that way when the disturbing presence of man blocked the passage. A thrill went through the phalanx, and it swayed to the left and then to the right. The movement—spontaneous and mechanical—slightly elongated the formation, and three scouts in single file slid down to reconnoitre, and with a nervous splash as they scented danger, dashed back and blended imperceptibly with ...

— My Tropic Isle • E J Banfield

... plan which would have removed all the difficulty at once, by dividing both the apple and the pear, and giving to Lucy half of each. But he did not think of this. In fact his mother knew that, as he was going directly bark to Lucy, he would not have much time to think but must act according to the spontaneous ...

— Rollo at Play - Safe Amusements • Jacob Abbott

... leading men of science are in this difficulty; on the one hand their experiments and their theories alike teach them that spontaneous generation ought not to be accepted; on the other, they must have an origin for the life of the living forms, which, by their own theory, have been evolved, and they can at present get this origin in no ...

— Unconscious Memory • Samuel Butler

... minutes, and fell gently in a vineyard at a distance of about a mile and a half from the place of its ascension. So memorable a feat lighted up the glow of national vanity, and the two Montgolfiers were hailed and exalted by the spontaneous impulse ...

— Up in the Clouds - Balloon Voyages • R.M. Ballantyne

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