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Synonyms

spontaneously

American  
[spon-tey-nee-uhs-lee] / spɒnˈteɪ ni əs li /

adverb

  1. naturally, without premeditation, prompting, or planning.

    The author recounts how a fully-fledged exchange market economy emerged spontaneously in his POW camp.

    These answers were given spontaneously to an open-ended question that did not offer response options.

  2. in an impulsive way.

    It was so cold the other night that I spontaneously booked a trip to Turks and Caicos.

  3. by a natural process or from an internal force or cause.

    A calf should normally stand spontaneously within 60–90 minutes of its birth.

    The symptoms resolved spontaneously within 6 months of onset.

Other Word Forms

  • nonspontaneously adverb
  • semispontaneously adverb
  • subspontaneously adverb
  • unspontaneously adverb

Etymology

Origin of spontaneously

spontaneous ( def. ) + -ly

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.