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Biological vs Natural - What's the difference?

biological | natural |

As adjectives the difference between biological and natural

is that biological is of or relating to biology while natural is that exists and evolved within the confines of an ecosystem.

As a noun natural is

a native inhabitant of a place, country etc.

biological

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Of or relating to biology.
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
  • , author=John T. Jost , title=Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)? , volume=100, issue=2, page=162 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record. With this biological framework in place, Corning endeavors to show that the capitalist system as currently practiced in the United States and elsewhere is manifestly unfair.}}
  • Related by consanguinity, especially as to parents and children.
  • Synonyms

    * biologic

    See also

    * adoptive * biological clock * biological father * biological mother * birth mother

    natural

    Alternative forms

    * naturall (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • That exists and evolved within the confines of an ecosystem.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author= Karen McVeigh
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=10, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= US rules human genes can't be patented , passage=The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.}}
  • Of or relating to nature.
  • Without artificial additives.
  • As expected; reasonable.
  • His prison sentence was the natural consequence of a life of crime.
  • * Addison
  • What can be more natural than the circumstances in the behaviour of those women who had lost their husbands on this fatal day?
  • (music) Neither sharp nor flat. Denoted .
  • (music) Produced by natural organs, such as those of the human throat, in distinction from instrumental music.
  • (music) Applied to an air or modulation of harmony which moves by easy and smooth transitions, digressing but little from the original key.
  • Without, or prior to, modification or adjustment.
  • the natural motion of a gravitating body
  • * Macaulay
  • with strong natural sense, and rare force of will
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=5 citation , passage=Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.}}
  • Having the character or sentiments properly belonging to one's position; not unnatural in feelings.
  • * Shakespeare
  • To leave his wife, to leave his babes, / He wants the natural touch.
  • (obsolete) Connected by the ties of consanguinity.
  • * J. H. Newman
  • natural friends
  • (obsolete) Born out of wedlock; illegitimate; bastard.
  • a natural child
  • (of sexual intercourse) Without a condom.
  • Synonyms

    * (as expected) inevitable, necessary, reasonable * (without a condom)

    Antonyms

    * (exists in an ecosystem) aberrant, abnormal, artificial * (as expected) aberrant, abnormal, freak, unexpected, unreasonable

    Derived terms

    * naturally * naturalness * natural advantages * natural aging * natural breast * natural business year * natural child * natural childbirth * natural daughter * natural death * natural disaster * natural fiber * natural food * natural frequency * natural gas * natural historian * natural history * natural killer cell * natural language * natural language processing * natural law * natural light * natural logarithm * natural medicine * natural monopoly * natural number * natural philosophy * natural religion * natural resources * natural scale * natural science * natural selection * natural slope * natural son * natural theology * natural virtue * natural wastage * natural world * natural-born * naturalise/naturalize * naturalist * unnatural

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • * 1615 , Ralph Hamor, A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia , Richmond 1957, page 3:
  • I coniecture and assure my selfe that yee cannot be ignorant by what meanes this peace hath bin thus happily both for our proceedings and the welfare of the Naturals concluded [...].
  • (music) A note that is not or is no longer to be modified by an accidental, or the symbol used to indicate such a note.
  • One with an innate talent at or for something.
  • He's a natural on the saxophone.
  • An almost white colour, with tints of grey, yellow or brown; originally that of natural fabric.
  • (archaic) One with a simple mind; a fool or idiot.
  • * 1597 , , by Shakespeare, Act 2 Scene 4
  • (Mercutio) [...] this drivelling love is like a great natural , / that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole.
  • One's natural life.
  • * 1929 , (Frederic Manning), The Middle Parts of Fortune , Vintage 2014, page 155:
  • *:‘Sergeant-Major Robinson came in in the middle of it, and you've never seen a man look more surprised in your natural .’
  • See also

    *

    Statistics

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