Natural means made by the world itself rather than by people or machines. Natural light, natural ingredients, natural disaster.
On a label it means much less than shoppers assume, since natural is barely regulated and covers plenty of things nobody would want to eat. It also means unaffected — a natural manner — and inborn: a natural talent, a natural at it. In music, a natural is the sign cancelling a sharp or flat. Note naturally, which means both in a natural way and of course.
1adjectivenaturalMade by the world itself rather than by people.
“The shop sells soap made from natural ingredients like honey and oil.”
2adjectiveinbornInborn rather than learned.
“She's a natural leader, and people follow her without being asked.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
natural is a quality of being unmade.
Latin naturalis comes from natura, from nasci, to be born. It displaced the Old English gecynde, which came from the same root as kind and kin.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵenh₁-
Latin
nātūrālis
Old French
natural
Middle English
natural
English, today
natural
Built from
Middle English natural, borrowed from Old French natural, naturel, from Latin nātūrālis, from nātus, the perfect participle of nāscor (“be born”). Displaced native ġecynde. by surface analysis, natur(e) + nature + al.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA