spontaneously
Americanadverb
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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.
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in an impulsive way.
It was so cold the other night that I spontaneously booked a trip to Turks and Caicos.
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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
Etymology
Origin of spontaneously
Explanation
When you do something spontaneously, you do it on a whim, without preparing for it or giving it much thought. If your math teacher spontaneously breaks into a tap dance, it will surprise the whole class. Spontaneously belting out a song on the subway is very different from practicing over many weeks for a choral concert solo. Things that happen spontaneously aren't planned: improvisation in music or theater, for example, happens spontaneously. Spontaneously comes from the adjective spontaneous, with its Late Latin root spontaneus, "willing," or "of one's free will."
Vocabulary lists containing spontaneously
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.
So spontaneously that it had not even been printed out, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had to scramble to source a printer from within the grand palace.
From Barron's • Jun. 19, 2026
On 15 June 2022, Kianty was taken to Glangwili Hospital to be induced but her labour started spontaneously.
From BBC • Jun. 14, 2026
In my mid-20s, I began breaking out in hives spontaneously.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 8, 2026
“Yesterday half of the jury spontaneously broke down in tears and several members of the jury have reported multiple nights of sleeplessness,” they wrote in a note to the judge.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 20, 2026
Songs flared between speeches, chants exploded as spontaneously as shouts at a southern revival.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
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.
