Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Unnatural |
UnnaturalAdjective1. Not in accordance with or determined by nature; contrary to nature; "an unnatural death"; "the child's unnatural interest in death". 2. Speaking or behaving in an artificial way to make an impression. 3. Distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous; "tales of grotesque serpents eight fathoms long that churned the seas"; "twisted into monstrous shapes". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "unnatural" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Synonyms: UnnaturalSynonyms: affected (adj), grotesque (adj), monstrous (adj). (additional references) |
| Antonyms: natural (adj), unaffected (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Affectation | Not natural, unnatural; self-conscious; maniere; artificial; overwrought, overdone, overacted; euphuist. |
Malevolence | Cold, cold-blooded, cold-hearted; black-hearted, hard-hearted, flint-hearted, marble-hearted, stony-hearted; hard of heart, unnatural; ruthless; (unmerciful) a; relentless; (revengeful). |
Unconformity | Adjective: uncomformable, exceptional; abnormal, abnormous; anomalous, anomalistic; out of order, out of place, out of keeping, out of tune, out of one's element; irregular, arbitrary; teratogenic; lawless, informal, aberrant, stray, wandering, wanton; peculiar, exclusive, unnatural, eccentric, egregious; out of the beaten track, off the beaten track, out of the common, out of the common run; beyond the pale of, out of the pale of; misplaced; funny. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Unnatural |
| English words defined with "unnatural": achromasia, action, Antiphysical ♦ black art, black magic ♦ Catamite, Cataphysical, Contranatural, contrivance, Costiveness ♦ denaturalise, denaturalize, Disnatured ♦ Ectropion, eerily, Epigene, Equilibrist ♦ False passage ♦ grotesque ♦ hurry ♦ Kindless ♦ lividity, lividness, lurid, luridness ♦ mannered, Microphthalmy, Misgrowth, Misshape, Mollities, monstrous ♦ Natureless ♦ paleness, pallidness, pallor, Phycomycetes, Phycomycetes group ♦ rush ♦ sorcery, spookily ♦ torticollis, torture, torturing ♦ Unnaturalize, unnaturally, unnaturalness, Unnature ♦ wanness, wryneck. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "unnatural": Apparel ♦ Forest health ♦ Genre Painter, Goneril ♦ Illumination ♦ Life-insurance Man ♦ Priuli ♦ Rouge ♦ Sleep, Snakes, SUPERVISOR, RESEARCH DAIRY FARM ♦ Waist and Shirt-Waist. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "unnatural": Unnaturalize. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Franky, have you ever had unnatural urges (Rock 'n' Roll Frankenstein; writing credit: Brian O'Hara; Vito Cannella) Are you two hiding, or committing an unnatural act (Water; writing credit: Dick Clement; Ian La Frenais) I was murdered, an unnatural death, and now I walk the earth in limbo until the werewolf's curse is lifted (American Werewolf in London, An; writing credit: John Landis) The world is full of inconsistencies. Full of unnatural beings, nature's mistakes they call you for instance (The Haunting; writing credit: Shirley Jackson; Nelson Gidding) Murder most foul, as in the best it is, But this most foul, strange, and unnatural. (Hamlet; writing credit: William Shakespeare; Kenneth Branagh) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Unnatural History (1959) An Unnatural Act (1984) Unnatural Family (1979) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Democracy against the unnatural union. Trial Octr. 14th 1817. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |
| "He who rocks hardest..." by Justin Baker Commentary: "Timothy Green rocking out... hard. Shot taken with Fujifilm Velvia (50 ISO) transparency film. Shooting a daylight balanced film under fluorescent lighting conditions can prove to be interesting. I enjoyed the contrast between the guitar and the bg, as w" |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Author | Quotation |
Amelia E. Barr | Whatever the scientists may say, if we take the supernatural out of life, we leave only the unnatural. |
Burke | Some decent, regulated pre-eminence, some preference given to birth, is neither unnatural nor unjust nor impolitic. |
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe | The unnatural, that too is natural. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | With him it was most unnatural. |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | Unnatural state, if ever there was one. |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | I expected every moment that my master would accuse the Yahoos of those unnatural appetites in both sexes, so common among us. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | It is not unnatural, then, for siblings to resent the "privileged status" of the sick child in the family, neighborhood, and school and the lack of attention to their own needs. (references) | |
RMDs may be caused by overexertion, incorrect posture, muscle fatigue, compression of nerves or tissue, too many uninterrupted repetitions of an activity or motion, or friction caused by an unnatural or awkward motion such as twisting the arm or wrist. (references) | ||
Human Rights | Sri Lanka | In other cases, victims must remain in unnatural positions for extended periods, or they have bags laced with insecticide, chili powder, or gasoline placed over their heads. (references) |
Women | India | Under the Penal Code, courts must presume that the husband or the wife's in-laws are responsible for every unnatural death of a woman in the first 7 years of marriage--provided that harassment is proven. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
George Washington | 1789-1797 | Any other tenure by which the West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious. |
John Adams | 1797-1801 | Such unnatural and iniquitous practices can be restrained only by severe punishments. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Unnatural" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 96.84% of the time. "Unnatural" is used about 380 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 96.84% | 368 | 14,720 |
| Noun (singular) | 2.89% | 11 | 106,044 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.26% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 380 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "unnatural": grotesque monstrous unnatural ♦ unnatural deeds ♦ unnatural gaiety ♦ unnatural son. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "unnatural": unnatural-looking, unnatural-sounding. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "unnatural"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | onnatuurlik (artificial). (various references) | |
Albanian | kundër natyrës, i çuditshëm (bizarre, cranky, curious, dark, eccentric, electric, erratic, extraordinary, fanciful, fantastic, fantastical, frabjous, freak, freakish, funny, grotesque, kinky, odd, oddish, off beat, outlandish, peculiar, pixilated, puzzling, quaint, queer, quizzical, rummy, strange, surprising, uncanny, unco, unusual, viewy, way out, weird, whimsical), artificial (artful, artificial, camp, cultured, factitious, false, made, meretricious, pinchbeck, simulated, synthetic, synthetical, tin), anormal (Anomalistic, anomalous). (various references) | |
Arabic | متكلف (affected, artificial, assumed, constrained, factitious, faked, false, feigned, forced, mannered, overacted, put on, sham, stagy, stilted, stogie, strained, theatrical), متصنع (affected, artificial, assumed, mannered, overacted, phony, sham, simulated, stagy, strained, theatrical), غير سوي (anomalous, preternatural), غير طبيعي (off color, off colour, preternatural, seedy, violent, weird), غير شرعي (bootlegger, ill gotten, illegal, illegitimate, misbegotten, natural, promiscuous, spurious, unlawful, wrongful), غريب (absurd, alien, anomalous, antic, bizarre, eerie, eery, exotic, extraneous, fanciful, foreign, freakish, funny, grotesque, intruder, ludicrous, new, odd, outlandish, outsider, peculiar, potty, quaint, queer, rum, senseless, singular, strange, stranger, tall, unaccustomed, uncanny, uncouth, unearthly, unfamiliar, whimsical). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | свръхестествен (eerie, hyperphysical, metaphysical, miraculous, occult, preternatural, spiritual, supernatural, supersensible, transcendental, uncanny, unearthly, weird), чудовищен (enormous, miscreated, monster, monstrous, prodigious), неестествен (artificial, freak, galvanic, stagy, stilted), противоестествен (abnormal), изкуствен (affected, artificial, factitious, false, imitation, man-made, mimic, pinchbeck, theatrical, unreal). (various references) | |
Chinese | 不自然 . (various references) | |
Czech | nepřirozený (contrived, factious, far fetched, farfetched, hollow, unholy), neobvyklý (anomalous, atypical, intriguing, off beat, out of the way, uncommon, uncustomary, undue, unfamiliar, unusual), afektovaný (affected, camp, genteel, mannered, mincing, minikin, stilted, studied, stuffy, theatrical), abnormální (abnormal, deviant). (various references) | |
Dutch | onnatuurlýk (affected, artificial), kunstmatig (artificial, artistic), gezocht (artificial, looked). (various references) | |
Farsi | ناسرشت , غیرطبیعی (Preposterous, Sophisticated, Subnormal, Uncanny), برخلاف اصول طبیعت . (various references) | |
Finnish | teennäinen (affected, artificial, forced), luonnoton (abnormal, affected), epäluonnollinen. (various references) | |
French | non naturel, anormal, affecté. (various references) | |
German | unnatürlich (abnormal, artificial, morbid, nonnatural, strained, unnaturally). (various references) | |
Greek | αφύσικοσ (abnormal, absonant, constrained, freakish, uncanny, unearthly). (various references) | |
Hawaiian | artificial (artificial). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מלאכותי (artificial, factitious, made, made up, spurious, synthetic), לא טבעי (weird). (various references) | |
Hungarian | természetellenes (it is against nature, perverse, preposterous). (various references) | |
Indonesian | buatan (artificial, make, pretense, product), aneh (abnormal, irregular, mysterious, odd, oddly, peculiar, queer, strange, unusual). (various references) | |
Italian | innaturale. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 人為的 (artificial), 人工的 (artificial), 不自然 (affected, artificial, strained). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ふしぜん (affected, artificial, strained), じんいてき (artificial), じんこうてき (artificial). (various references) | |
Korean | 부자연스러운. (various references) | |
Papiamen | innatural (artificial). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | aturalunnay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | perverso (cantankerous, damnable, devilish, diabolic, diabolical, evil, ill-conditioned, malicious, malignant, mischievous, nasty, naughty, nefarious, perverse, sinful, unjust, unrighteous, vicious, vile, villainous, viperous, wicked), não natural (labored, laboured), monstruoso (bloodcurdling, miscreated, monster, monstrous), desnatural, desnaturado, antinatural, anormal (abnormal, defective). (various references) | |
Romanian | sucit (distorted, twisted, uncommon, unusual, whimsical, wrongheaded, wry), silit (artificial, forced, strained, under constraint, unwilling), nenatural (affected, artificially, preternatural, stilted), nefiresc (affected, artificial, artificially, cardboard, factitious, weird), monstruos (awful, colossal, huge, monster, monstrous, monstrously, shocking, strapping), inuman (inhuman, insensate), fals (apparent, artificial, bad, base, bogus, cant, colourable, counterfeit, deceitful, double dealing, dud, dummy, erroneous, erroneously, error, factitious, fake, false, falsehood, feigned, flash, forged, forgery, fraud, glossy, hollow, hollow-hearted, imitation, imposture, insincere, lying, mendacious, mistaken, mock, painted, phony, plugged, reprobate, sham, spurious, sugary, tinsel, treacherous, trumpery, truthless, two faced, unnaturally, untrue, wrong, wrongfully), factice (artificial), denaturat (sophisticated). (various references) | |
Russian | неестественный (far fetched, forced, stagy). (various references) | |
Scottish | mi-nàdurra (a. unnatural). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | veštački (artificial, bogus, californium, factitious, false, man-made), neprirodan (constrained, contrived, mannered, mincing, stagy, uncanny), nenormalan (aberrant, abnormal). (various references) | |
Spanish | poco natural, perverso (abandoned, debauched, evil, perverse, perverted, vicious, wicked), no natural, contrario a la naturaleza, antinatural, anormal (aberrant, abnormal, anomalous, atypical, defective, freak, freakish, irregular), afectado (affected, artificial, camp, foppish, influenced, La-di-da, mincing, niminy-piminy, poseur, posh, precious, stilted, strained, studied, twee). (various references) | |
Swedish | onaturlig (artificial, constrained, morbid, perverted, preternatural). (various references) | |
Turkish | yapmacık (affected, artificial, campy, chichi, constrained, counterfeit, factitious, false, feigned, genteel, plummy, pretended, put on, rose water, set, shifty, sophisticated, studied, studious, theatrical), yapay (artificial, ersatz, factitious, imitation, spurious, synthetical), sapık (aberrant, Dotty, perverse, pervert, perverted, wacky), insanlık dışı (barbarous, barbarously, diabolic, diabolical, inhuman, inhumane), doğaya aykırı, doğal olmayan (far fetched), anormal (aberrant, abnormal, anomalous, freak, freakish, preternatural). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | страхітливий (appalling, frightful, horrendous, horrific, prodigious, whopping), безсердечний (callous, cold-hearted, hard-hearted, heartless, ossified), протиприродний. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | trái với thiên nhiên không tự nhiên, giả tạo (affected, affectedly, factitious). (various references) | |
Welsh | annaturiol. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | coactus, inportuna, inportune, inportunis, prodigiosus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | 1 Timothy Chapter 1, Verse 10 |
| Greek (transliterated) | 250 BC | Septuagint | PornoiV arsenokoitaiV andrapodistaiV yeustaiV epiorkoiV kai ei ti eteron th ugiainoush didaskalia antikeitai |
| Latin | 405 | Vulgate | Fornicariis masculorum concubitoribus plagiariis mendacibus periuris et si quid aliud sanae doctrinae adversatur |
| Middle English | 1395 | Wyclif | To hem that don letcherie with men, lesingmongeris and forsworun, and if ony othere thing is contrarie to the hoolsum teching, |
| Renaissance English | 1526 | Tyndale | And whormongers: to them that defile them selves with mankynde: to menstealers: to lyars and to periured and so forth yf ther be eny other thinge that is cotrary to holsome doctrine |
| Jacobean English | 1611 | King James | For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; |
| Victorian English | 1833 | Webster | For lewd persons, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, |
| Basic English | 1964 | Ogden | For those who go after loose women, for those with unnatural desires, for those who take men prisoners, who make false statements and false oaths, and those who do any other things against the right teaching, |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | 1 Timothy Chapter 1, Verse 10 |
| Cebuano | sa mga makihilawason, sa mga makig-unayg isigkalalaki, sa mga mamimihag ug tawo, sa mga bakakon, sa mga tigpanumpag bakak, ug sa bisan unsa pa nga kabatok sa maayong tuloohan, |
| Croatian | bludnike, muškoložnike, trgovce ljudima, varalice, krivokletnike, i ima li još što protivno zdravom nauku - |
| Danish | utugtige, Syndere imod Naturen, Menneskerøvere, Løgnere, Menedere, og hvad andet der er imod den sunde Lære, |
| Dutch | Den hoereerders, dien, die bij mannen liggen, den mensendieven, den leugenaars, den meinedigen, en zo er iets anders tegen de gezonde leer is; |
| Finnish | haureellisille, miehimyksille, ihmiskauppiaille, valhettelijoille, valapattoisille ja kaikelle muulle, mikä on tervettä oppia vastaan - |
| French | les impudiques, les infâmes, les voleurs d`hommes, les menteurs, les parjures, et tout ce qui est contraire à la saine doctrine, - |
| German | den Hurern, den Knabenschändern, den Menschendieben, den Lügnern, den Meineidigen und so etwas mehr der heilsamen Lehre zuwider ist, |
| Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari | terhadap orang-orang cabul, homoseks, penculik, pembohong; saksi-saksi dusta, dan siapa saja yang membuat hal-hal yang bertentangan dengan ajaran yang benar. |
| Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama | bagi orang yang berzinah dan orang semburit, dan yang mencuri orang, dan yang membuat dusta dan yang bersumpah dusta, dan barang apa pun yang bersalahan dengan pengajaran yang benar itu, |
| Italian | i fornicatori, i pervertiti, i trafficanti di uomini, i falsi, gli spergiuri e per ogni altra cosa che è contraria alla sana dottrina, |
| Latvian | Netikïiem, vîrieðu apgânîtâjiem, cilvçku laupîtâjiem, meïiem, zvçresta lauzçjiem un tiem, kas pretojas veselîgajai mâcîbai, |
| Maori | Mo te hunga moepuku, moe kino i te tane, tahae tangata, korero teka, oati teka, a ki te mea tera atu tetahi mea kahore nei e rite ki te whakaako tika; |
| Norwegian | horkarler, syndere mot naturen, menneskerøvere, løgnere, menedere, og alt annet som er imot den sunde lære, |
| Portuguese | para os devassos, os sodomitas, os roubadores de homens, os mentirosos, os perjuros, e para tudo que for contrário à sã doutrina, |
| Rumanian | pentru curvari, pentru sodomiyi, pentru vknzqtorii de oameni, pentru cei mincinowi, pentru cei ce jurq strkmb, wi pentru orice este kmpotriva knvqyqturii sqnqtoase: - |
| Shuar | nuwancha tura aishmannasha tsanirma ainia nunasha, shuaran kasamak juu ainia nunasha, Wáitrinniasha, tsanumniuncha, Ashí nuna itit awajsatniun akupenawai. Kame Ashí pénkercha nuna iwiaratniun akupenawai. |
| Spanish | para los fornicarios, para los homosexuales, para los secuestradores, para los mentirosos, para los perjuros, y para cuanto haya contrario a la sana doctrina, |
| Swahili | sheria imewekwa kwa ajili ya waasherati, wafiraji, wanaowaiba watu, waongo, na wanaoapa uongo au wanaofanya chochote ambacho ni kinyume cha mafundisho ya kweli. |
| Swedish | för dem som öva otukt och onaturlig vällustsynd, för dem som äro människosäljare, lögnare, menedare eller något annat som strider mot den sunda läran -- |
| Uma | Patuju Atura Musa, bona mpotagi tauna to mobualo', to mogau' sala' tomane hingka tomane-na ba tobine hingka tobine-na, to mpo'ala' tauna bona rapobatua, to boa', to mosabi' boa', pai' hema-hema to mpobabehi to mosisala hante tudui' to makono. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "unnatural": unnaturally, unnaturalness, unnaturalnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Unnatural" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: unattri, unatural, unmaternal. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "unnatural" (pronounced unna"kherul) |
| 6 | -n a" kh er u l | supernatural, natural. |
| 4 | -kh er u l | agricultural, architectural, countercultural, cultural, horticultural, structural, intercultural, multicultural, nomenclatural, nonagricultural, prefectural, scriptural, sculptural. |
| 3 | -er u l | admiral, behavioral, bilateral, collateral, Corporal, doctoral, doggerel, electoral, ephemeral, federal, femoral, funeral, Gen, general, guttural, humoral, inaugural, temporal, lateral, liberal, literal, littoral, mackerel, mayoral, mineral, multilateral, neoliberal, numeral, pastoral, pectoral, peripheral, pickerel, postdoctoral, procedural, sectoral, trilateral, unilateral, visceral. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-l-n-n-r-t-u-u" | |
-2 letters: annular, natural. | |
-3 letters: annual, antral, anural, anuran, ranula, tarnal. | |
-4 letters: alant, altar, annal, annul, antra, artal, aural, lauan, laura, lunar, natal, ratal, ratan, ruana, talar, ulnar, ultra. | |
-5 letters: alan, alar, anal, anna, anta, aunt, aura, luau, luna, lunt, naan, nana, nurl, rant, runt, tala, tarn, tuna, turn, ulan, ulna, unau. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-l-n-n-r-t-u-u" | |
+2 letters: unnaturally. | |
+4 letters: unnaturalness. | |
+5 letters: undervaluation. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Familiar 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Quotations: Speeches | 13. Usage Frequency 14. Expressions 15. Expressions: Internet 16. Translations: Modern | 17. Translations: Ancient 18. Bible Trace 19. Derivations 20. Rhymes | 21. Anagrams 22. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
