spɔnˈteɪnjəs adj. 1
acting or
done or occurring
without external cause. 2
voluntary, without external incitement (made a spontaneous
offer of
his services). 3 Biol. (of
structural changes in plants
and muscular activity esp. in
young animals)
instinctive,
automatic, prompted by no
motive. 4 (of
bodily movement,
literary style, etc.) gracefully
natural and
unconstrained. 5 (of
sudden movement etc.)
involuntary,
not due to
conscious volition. 6 growing
naturally without cultivation. øspontaneous
combustion the ignition of a
mineral or
vegetable substance (e.g. a
heap of rags soaked
with oil, a mass of
wet coal)
from heat engendered
within itself, usu. by
rapid oxidation. spontaneous
generation the supposed
production of
living from non-living
matter as inferred from the
appearance of
life (due in
fact to
bacteria etc.) in
some infusions;
abiogenesis. spontaneous
suggestion suggestion from
association of ideas without conscious volition. øøspontaneity n. spontaneously adv. spontaneousness n. [LL spontaneus f. sponte of one's
own accord]
