Spontaneously

How to spell spontaneously

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce spontaneously

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does spontaneously mean?

1. adverbIn a way that happens naturally and without planning or external prompting.

Spontaneously in a sentence

• The audience spontaneously rose to their feet when the song ended.

• She decided spontaneously to book a weekend trip to the coast.

Where does spontaneously come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This adverb traces back to the Latin spontaneus, meaning 'of one's own free will' or 'voluntary', which itself grew from the noun sponte, meaning 'of one's own accord' or 'willingly'. Latin writers used sponte to describe an action done without any outside compulsion, and the adjective spontaneus carried that same sense of self-driven action. English adopted the adjective 'spontaneous' in the early 1600s, chiefly in legal and scientific writing, and the adverb 'spontaneously' followed naturally by adding the familiar -ly ending. Over time the word broadened from the strict idea of 'voluntary' to the modern sense of something happening suddenly and without planning, as when a crowd erupts in applause. The spelling trap lies in the quiet middle: the stressed -tane- is clear enough, but the unstressed -eous- before -ly tempts writers to drop a vowel or muddle the order, so it helps to remember the adjective 'spontaneous' sitting whole inside it.

How the word is built

• spontane- (from Latin spontaneus: of one's own accord)
• -ous (adjective suffix: full of)
• -ly (adverb suffix)