Meanings
- historicaluncountableThe objective study of nature in the widest sense; science or the protoscience that led to it; (later especially) physics.First known use 14th c.
Those who have treated of natural philoſophy, may be nearly reduced to three claſſes.
1729, Roger Cotes, “The Preface of Mr. Roger Cotes, to the Second Edition of this Work, so far as It Relates to the Inventions and Discoveries herein Contained”, in Isaac Newton, translated by Andrew Motte, The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. […] , volume I, London: […] Benjamin Motte, […], →OCLC2 more examples
Next to Mathematics, the study of natural philosophy tends to have anti-aphrodisiac effects.
1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 163The discipline which is the ancestor of modern specializations like astronomy, biology, physics and chemistry was then called natural philosophy.
2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 772
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Translations
Latin philosophia naturalis
- philosophia naturalisobjective study of nature
Cite this entry
natural philosophy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/natural%20philosophy
“natural philosophy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/natural%20philosophy. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “natural philosophy,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/natural%20philosophy.
Source: natural philosophy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.