unnatural
/ʌnˈnatʃ(ə)r(ə)l
/adjective
1Contrary to the ordinary course of nature; abnormal: death by unnatural causes...
- Bringing a tree into a house and covering it with trinkets is, of course, an unnatural act.
- A glance at any science text tells us that monogamy is utterly unnatural, unless of course you're a swan.
- It was, of course, a completely unnatural oddity of physics, but the Weak Hole in particular was worse than your average black hole.
Synonyms
abnormal, unusual, uncommon, extraordinary, strange, freakish, freak, queer, odd, peculiar, weird, unorthodox, exceptional, irregular, atypical, untypical, non-typical, anomalous, divergent, aberrant, bizarre, preternatural
1.1(Of feelings or behaviour) contrary to what is seen as normal, conventional, or acceptable: wanting to help other people is not unnatural...
- Indeed, if Madonna were a fictional character, one could only retain public sympathy for her by having her ‘pay the price’ for her unnatural behaviour.
- Donnelly complains that Play School is battling ‘to normalise what many parents would consider unnatural behaviour’.
- If wherever she was going was full of such… unnatural feelings… she wasn't sure how she would fare through it.
Synonyms
perverted, warped, twisted, deviant, depraved, degenerate, bestial, unhealthy, immoral, abnormal, decadent
informal kinky, pervy, sick, sicko
rare deviative
uncaring, unconcerned, unfeeling, inhuman, soulless, heartless, cold, cold-blooded, hard, hard-hearted, callous, cruel, brutal, merciless, pitiless, remorseless, inhumane, evil, wicked, monstrous
2Not existing in nature; artificial: the artificial turf looks an unnatural green...
- The setup is unnatural and artificial, but the emotion within the situation is very real - like a beam of light in a house of mirrors, the emotion is intensified.
- Genuine emotions of family attachment can never be expected to spring in such an artificial, unnatural environment.
- Light shone around her, constant, as constant as daylight, but infinitely harsher; it was unnatural, artificial.
Synonyms
artificial, man-made, synthetic, manufactured, fabricated, fake, false, faux, simulated, not found/existing in nature
2.1Affected or stilted: the formal tone of the programmes caused them to sound stilted and unnatural...
- There were long periods with little to no dialogue, and what dialogue there was felt stilted and unnatural (but that may have been the intention).
- One of the criticisms I've heard is that the language is stilted and unnatural.
- Their performances are stilted, unnatural, and weak.
Synonyms
affected, artificial, stilted, self-conscious, contrived, forced, laboured, studied, strained, stiff, wooden;
assumed, feigned, false, bogus, fake, insincere, pretended, unspontaneous, theatrical, stagy, mannered, pretentious
informal put on, phoney
Derivatives
unnaturalness
- It was more than the sheer unnaturalness of the strange man (It was a man, wasn't it?)
- The trouble is that this call fails: Whatever one's definition of natural, either homosexuality is natural, or it's unnaturalness says nothing at all about its propriety.
- The blue tree is one of the most striking pieces of urban art I've seen: totally unexpected, vibrant, vital, and somehow natural despite its complete unnaturalness.