law of nature
Britishnoun
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an empirical truth of great generality, conceived of as a physical (but not a logical) necessity, and consequently licensing counterfactual conditionals
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a system of morality conceived of as grounded in reason See natural law nomological
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See law 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The results suggest that future improvements depend primarily on advances in materials science rather than overcoming an unavoidable law of nature.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 2, 2026
There’s no law of nature that caps how high those numbers go, but patterns do repeat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026
Similarly, maybe there’s no law of nature or principle of reality that guarantees humanity’s survival, but we just so happen to occupy a world in which human extinction isn’t something that will ever occur.
From Salon ● Oct. 8, 2023
It is a law of nature that there is never too much cowbell.
From New York Times ● Jul. 14, 2023
Where did Descartes’ conception of a law of nature come from?
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
