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PlainSpell

natural

nat·u·ral/ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹəl/adjective, noun, adverb

natural is spelled N-A-T-U-R-A-L, 3 syllables: nat·u·ral. The wrong spelling people search most is natrual: about 130 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 67 of all searches for the word. Natural is an adjective meaning “Existing in the nature of a person or thing; innate, not acquired or learned”.

How many letters and syllables are in natural?

Letters7: N-A-T-U-R-A-L
Syllables3: nat·u·ral
In writing129 times per million words; the 810th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched2; the most searched, natrual, about 130 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell natural?

Natural is spelled N-A-T-U-R-A-L. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 62 of the searches for natural in either form.

naturalthe right spelling8,550 searches a month
natrualu and r swapped130 searches a month
naturualan extra u10 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is natural?

Natural appears 129 times per million words in written English, the 810th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce natural?

  • /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹəl/
  • /ˈnæt.(ə.)ɹəl/
  • /ˈnatʃ(ʊ)rəl/

Natural has 3 syllables, split nat·u·ral in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-natural.wav, En-us-natural.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of natural

  • more natural comparative
  • most natural superlative
  • nat'ral
  • naturals plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does natural mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Existing in the nature of a person or thing; innate, not acquired or learned.

  2. 2

    Normally associated with a particular person or thing; inherently related to the nature of a thing or creature.

    The species will be under threat if its natural habitat is destroyed.

  3. 3

    As expected; reasonable, normal; naturally arising from the given circumstances.

    It's natural for business to be slow on Tuesdays.

  4. 4

    Formed by nature; not manufactured or created by artificial processes.

  5. 5

    Pertaining to death brought about by disease or old age, rather than by violence, accident etc.

    She died of natural causes.

  6. 6

    Having an innate ability to fill a given role or profession, or display a specified character.

  7. 7

    Designating a standard trigonometric function of an angle, as opposed to the logarithmic function.

  8. 8

    Closed under submodules, direct sums, and injective hulls.

noun

  1. 1

    archaicA native inhabitant of a place, country, etc.

  2. 2

    A note that is not or is no longer to be modified by an accidental.

  3. 3

    The symbol ♮ used to indicate such a natural note.

  4. 4

    One with an innate talent at or for something.

    He's a natural on the saxophone.

  5. 5

    An almost white colour, with tints of grey, yellow or brown; originally that of natural fabric.

  6. 6

    archaicOne with a simple mind; a fool or idiot.

  7. 7

    UKcolloquialOne's life.

  8. 8

    UScolloquialA hairstyle for people with Afro-textured hair in which the hair is not straightened or otherwise treated.

adverb

  1. 1

    colloquialNaturally; in a natural manner.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate natural?

Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of natural: Nat., nat.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Natural in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchnaturel (of or relating to nature), normal (as expected), bécarre (musically not sharp or flat)
Germannatürlich (of or relating to nature), naturwüchsig (without adjustment), naturfarben, naturfarbig (of colour: almost white), Naturtalent (someone with innate ability)
Portuguesenatural (of or relating to nature), normal (as expected), bequadro (musical note, symbol)
Spanishnatural (of or relating to nature), becuadro (musical note, symbol)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does natural come from?

Inherited from Middle English natural, borrowed from Old French natural, naturel, from Latin nātūrālis, from nātus, the perfect participle of nāscor (“be born”, verb). Displaced native Old English ġecynde. By surface analysis, natur(e) + -al.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after natural