spontaneous

adjective

spon·​ta·​ne·​ous spän-ˈtā-nē-əs How to pronounce spontaneous (audio)
1
: proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external constraint
2
: arising from a momentary impulse
3
: controlled and directed internally : self-acting
spontaneous movement characteristic of living things
4
: produced without being planted or without human labor : indigenous
5
: developing or occurring without apparent external influence, force, cause, or treatment
6
: not apparently contrived or manipulated : natural
spontaneously adverb
spontaneousness noun

Did you know?

When English philosopher Thomas Hobbes penned his 1656 The Questions Concerning Liberty, Necessity, and Chance he included the following: "all voluntary actions … are called also spontaneous, and said to be done by man's own accord." Hobbes was writing in English, but he knew Latin perfectly well too, including the source of spontaneous; the word comes, via Late Latin spontaneus, from the Latin sponte, meaning "of one's free will, voluntarily." In modern use, the word spontaneous is frequently heard in more mundane settings, where it often describes what is done or said without a lot of thought or planning.

Choose the Right Synonym for spontaneous

spontaneous, impulsive, instinctive, automatic, mechanical mean acting or activated without deliberation.

spontaneous implies lack of prompting and connotes naturalness.

a spontaneous burst of applause

impulsive implies acting under stress of emotion or spirit of the moment.

impulsive acts of violence

instinctive stresses action involving neither judgment nor will.

blinking is an instinctive reaction

automatic implies action engaging neither the mind nor the emotions and connotes a predictable response.

his denial was automatic

mechanical stresses the lifeless, often perfunctory character of the response.

a mechanical teaching method

Examples of spontaneous in a Sentence

Shane has a lovely habit of paying us spontaneous visits: one time she brought over a jar of a pickle she'd recently put up; another time just a good story or two. James Oseland, Saveur, December 2006
Cold viruses can damage the olfactory system directly. This loss of smell may last even after the cold is over. Sometimes the sense comes back as suddenly as it disappeared, perhaps because even as adults we generate new olfactory neurons. Spontaneous improvement might be a person's best hope, because there are no real proven treatments for reversing olfactory nerve damage. Harvard Health Letter, September 2001
Peter Jakobsen of the European Space Agency, which built the Faint Object Camera, drew spontaneous applause at the January meeting when he showed an image of supernova SN1987A from the instrument. Kristin Leutwyler, Scientific American, March 1994
The comment was completely spontaneous. He's a guy who's spontaneous and fun.
Recent Examples on the Web Cars were driving back and forth along 116th, with some engine revving and spontaneous dragging, Gebhart and Snellenberger said. John Tuohy, The Indianapolis Star, 13 Mar. 2024 Desire isn’t a spontaneous, apolitical passion; it’s shaped by the world around us, and by what we’ve been taught to value. Hannah Giorgis, The Atlantic, 12 Mar. 2024 Kimmel is at his host best reacting to spontaneous moments, even the 2017 EnvelopeGate disaster when the best picture Oscar was given to the wrong film. Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY, 7 Mar. 2024 With employees physically dispersed across the U.S. and abroad, spontaneous, serendipitous interactions, team building, birthday celebrations and informal social gatherings have faded away. Jack Kelly, Forbes, 2 Mar. 2024 Some celebrities seem to have a force field that repels spontaneous fan interaction. Kim Severson, New York Times, 20 Feb. 2024 Performed in 1979, Resonances was rigorously choreographed to appear spontaneous, evading governmental restrictions on collective action while simultaneously extending collective action to include people who might not be inclined to act on their own. Jonathon Keats, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024 During spontaneous parthenogenesis, eggs fuse with polar bodies to create a new offspring without the genetic contribution of another parent. Evan Bush, NBC News, 29 Feb. 2024 Avoid spontaneous purchases or regretful decisions when the bills arrive. Eugenia Last, The Mercury News, 26 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'spontaneous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Late Latin spontāneus "voluntary, unconstrained" (from Latin sponte "of one's own accord, by one's own agency," ablative of *spons —of uncertain origin— + -āneus, suffix forming adjectives from temporal adverbs, from -ānus -an entry 2 + -eus -eous) + -ous

Note: The suffix -āneus, a joining of -ānus and -eus, occurs earlier with compound verbs (as consentāneus "agreeable, consentaneous," succīdāneus "killed as a substitute or addition"—see succedaneum) and phrasal derivatives (as circumforāneus "itinerant," mediterrāneus "remote from the coast, inland"). The earliest derivatives from temporal adverbs are subitāneus "happening without warning, sudden" (Seneca) and praesentāneus "immediately operative, prompt in effect" (in Seneca and Pliny).

First Known Use

1605, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of spontaneous was in 1605

Podcast

Dictionary Entries Near spontaneous

Cite this Entry

“Spontaneous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spontaneous. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

spontaneous

adjective
spon·​ta·​ne·​ous spän-ˈtā-nē-əs How to pronounce spontaneous (audio)
1
: done, said, or produced freely and naturally
spontaneous laughter
2
: acting or taking place without any outside force or cause
spontaneously adverb
spontaneousness noun

Medical Definition

spontaneous

adjective
spon·​ta·​ne·​ous spän-ˈtā-nē-əs How to pronounce spontaneous (audio)
1
: proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external constraint
2
: developing without apparent external influence, force, cause, or treatment
a spontaneous nosebleed
spontaneously adverb

More from Merriam-Webster on spontaneous

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!