Nature

How to spell nature

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce nature

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does nature mean?

1. nounThe physical world and its living things, considered apart from human creations.
2. nounThe basic character or essential qualities of a person or thing.

Nature in a sentence

• The documentary explored how nature recovers after a wildfire.

• His generous nature made him popular with the whole team.

• A quiet walk in nature helped her clear her head after work.

• The report examined the changing nature of remote work.

Where does nature come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Nature comes from the Latin natura, which meant 'birth', 'the course of things', or 'the natural constitution of a thing'. That noun was built on the verb nasci, meaning 'to be born', and its past participle natus, 'born'; the literal idea was 'the qualities something has from birth'. English took the word through Old French nature in the 1200s and 1300s, first to describe a person's inborn character and later the whole physical world and its forces. The same nasci root sits inside a family of familiar words including 'native', 'nascent', 'innate', and even 'nation', all sharing the sense of being born or coming into being. The spelling keeps the Latin -ure ending, pronounced with a softened 'cher' sound that gives no clue to the letters, which is the main thing to remember when writing it.

How the word is built

• nat- (from nasci: to be born)
• -ure (noun suffix)