(~s)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1.
Nature is all the animals, plants, and other things in the world that are not made by people, and all the events and processes that are not caused by people.
...grasses that grow wild in ~.
...the ecological balance of ~.
N-UNCOUNT
see also Mother Nature
2.
The ~ of something is its basic quality or character.
Mr Sharp would not comment on the ~ of the issues being investigated.
...the ambitious ~ of the programme...
The rise of a major power is both economic and military in ~.
N-SING: with supp, oft n N, also by/in N
3.
Someone’s ~ is their character, which they show by the way they behave.
Jeya feels that her ambitious ~ made her unsuitable for an arranged marriage...
She trusted people. That was her ~...
He was by ~ affectionate.
N-SING: with poss, also by N
see also human ~
4.
If you want to get back to ~, you want to return to a simpler way of living.
She was very anxious to get away from cities and back to ~.
PHRASE: PHR after v
5.
If you say that something has a particular characteristic by its ~ or by its very ~, you mean that things of that type always have that characteristic.
Peacekeeping, by its ~, makes pre-planning difficult...
One could argue that smoking, by its very ~, is addictive.
PHRASE: N inflects, PHR with cl
6.
Some people talk about a call of ~ when referring politely to the need to go to the toilet.
I’m afraid I have to answer a call of ~.
PHRASE: PHR after v politeness
7.
If you say that something is in the ~ of things, you mean that you would expect it to happen in the circumstances mentioned.
Many have already died, and in the ~ of things many more will die.
PHRASE: PHR with cl
8.
If you say that one thing is in the ~ of another, you mean that it is like the other thing.
It was in the ~ of a debate rather than an argument.
PHRASE: PHR n, usu v-link PHR
9.
If a way of behaving is second ~ to you, you do it almost without thinking because it is easy for you or obvious to you.
Planning ahead had always come as second ~ to her...
It’s not easy at first, but it soon becomes second ~.
PHRASE: v-link PHR, oft PHR to n