Topic: NATURE

Explore NATURE Topic

Date:	1200-1300
Language:	French
Origin:	Latin natura, from natus; NATION

nature
noun

na‧ture S1 W1 See pronunciation table in "How to use dictionary" pages

plants/animals etc

also Nature [uncountable]HBHE everything in the physical world that is not controlled by humans, such as wild plants and animals, earth and rocks, and the weather:

Look up a word starting with D or S for samples of headword or sentence pronunciations on the LDOCE CD-ROM

We grew up in the countryside, surrounded by the beauties of nature.

nature conservation

the laws/forces of nature

The inhabitants of the island fight a constant battle against the forces of nature.

in nature

All these materials are found in nature.

Disease is nature's way of keeping the population down.

somebody's character

[uncountable and countable] someone's character:

a child with a happy, easy-going nature

somebody's nature

It's just not in Jane's nature to lie.

by nature

She was by nature a very affectionate person.

I tried appealing to his better nature (=his feelings of kindness) but he wouldn't agree to help us.

Of course she's jealous - it's only human nature (=the feelings and ways of behaving that all people have).

qualities of something

[singular, uncountable] the qualities or features that something has

nature of

They asked a lot of questions about the nature of our democracy.

He examined the nature of the relationship between the two communities.

exact/precise/true nature

The exact nature of the problem is not well understood.

different/political/temporary etc in nature

Any government funding would be temporary in nature.

Capitalist society is by its very nature unstable.

type

[singular] a particular kind of thing

of a personal/political/difficult etc nature

The support being given is of a practical nature.

of this/that nature

I never trouble myself with questions of that nature.

in the nature of things

according to the natural way things happen:

In the nature of things, there is bound to be the occasional accident.

be in the nature of something

formal to be similar to a type of thing:

The enquiry will be more in the nature of a public meeting than a formal hearing.

let nature take its course

to allow events to happen without doing anything to change the results:

The best cure for a cold is to let nature take its course.

back to nature

a style of living in which people try to live simply and not use modern machines:

city workers who want to get back to nature in their holidays

➔ be/become second nature (to somebody)

at second1 (10)

➔ the call of nature

at call2 (12)