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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Spontaneity

Spontaneity \Spon`ta*ne"i*ty\ (sp[o^]n`t[.a]*n[=e]"[i^]*t[y^]), n.; pl. Spontaneities (-t[i^]z). [Cf. F. spontan['e]it['e].]

  1. The quality or state of being spontaneous, or acting from native feeling, proneness, or temperament, without constraint or external force.

    Romney Leigh, who lives by diagrams, And crosses not the spontaneities Of all his individual, personal life With formal universals.
    --Mrs. Browning.

  2. (Biol.)

    1. The tendency to undergo change, characteristic of both animal and vegetable organisms, and not restrained or checked by the environment.

    2. The tendency to activity of muscular tissue, including the voluntary muscles, when in a state of healthful vigor and refreshment.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
spontaneity

1650s, from French spontanéité or a native formation from spontaneous + -ity.

Wiktionary
spontaneity

n. 1 (context uncountable English) The quality of being spontaneous. 2 (context countable English) spontaneous behaviour. 3 (context biology English) The tendency to undergo change, characteristic of both animal and vegetable organisms, and not restrained or checked by the environment. 4 (context biology English) The tendency to activity of muscular tissue, including the voluntary muscles, when in a state of healthful vigour and refreshment.

WordNet
spontaneity

n. the quality of being spontaneous and coming from natural feelings without constraint; "the spontaneity of his laughter" [syn: spontaneousness]

Usage examples of "spontaneity".

For Nikolai Lvov, poet, engineer, architect, folklorist, the main Russian trait was spontaneity.

But for all her planning and arranging, she left ample opportunity for her bandmates to express themselves freely, for without spontaneity, magic would be impossible.

There had to be a whole new scene, they said, and the only way to do it was to make the big move -- either figuratively or literally -- from Berkeley to the Haight-Ashbury, from pragmatism to mysticism, from politics to dope, from the hangups of protest to the peaceful disengagement of love, nature and spontaneity.

They prized originality and spontaneity, but during his entire tour on Kaden, Hazzard had seen little variance among the natives, save in their dress, which ranged from none at all to costumes of indescribably complex and bizarre design.

Wolfe stepped forward to make the final speech, reading from a teleprompter with all the warmth and spontaneity of a particularly dense block of wood.

The man had all the personality and spontaneity of an overaged cake of warm gefilte fish.

On this subject we had long and animated discussions he maintaining the utter groundlessness of faith in such matters,- I contending that a popular sentiment arising with absolute spontaneity that is to say, without apparent traces of suggestion had in itself the unmistakable elements of truth, and was entitled to as much respect as that intuition which is the idiosyncrasy of the individual man of genius.

It had indeed seemed to Paulina, as she scanned those early pages, that they revealed a spontaneity, a freshness of feeling somehow absent from his later lucubrations--as though this one emotion had reached him directly, the others through some interventing [sic] medium.

But as I was at it I should add, she'd add, the psychological cost of parentage, to ourselves individually and to the marital relationship: fatigue, loss of spontaneity, diminishment of ardor, general heaviness -- a kind of accelerated aging, the joint effect of passing years, increased responsibility, and accumulated familiarity -- never altogether compensated for by deeper intimacy.

With the liquid movement of a ballerina, or the animated spontaneity of a modern jazz artist, not the laggard shuffle of a slow dance that was the best she could manage.

Spontaneity, the personal equivalent of social planlessness, is elevated into a cardinal psychological virtue.

What she had first thought to be a simple, pleasant-tasting, mild drink was in fact a potent, complex mixture made especially to encourage the relaxation, spontaneity, and warm interaction that were desirable during the Festival to Honor the Mother.