spontaneity

From Latin spontaneus (“voluntary”). Compare French spontanéité.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈspɒn.tə.neɪ.ə.ti/

• Audio (UK)

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spontaneity (countable and uncountable, plural spontaneities)

1. (uncountable) The quality of being spontaneous.
2. (countable) Spontaneous behaviour.
   • 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Third Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC:

     Romney Leigh, who lives by diagrams, / And crosses out the spontaneities / Of all his individual, personal life / With formal universals.

3. (biology) The tendency to undergo change, characteristic of both animal and vegetable organisms, and not restrained or checked by the environment.
4. (biology) The tendency to activity of muscular tissue, including the voluntary muscles, when in a state of healthful vigour and refreshment.

• (quality of being spontaneous): abruptness, spontaneousness; see also Thesaurus:suddenness

• (antonym(s) of “quality of being spontaneous”): discipline

• spontaneous

• “spontaneity”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “spontaneity”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “spontaneity”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.