law of nature
21
3.9
- noun
- /lɔː əv ˈneɪtʃər/
- Specialized
:
ley de la naturaleza
- Understanding the laws of nature helps scientists predict natural phenomena, such as gravity and motion.
- universal law of nature
- fundamental law of nature
- discover the laws of nature
So not a, not a personal designer, just laws of nature with goals built into them.
- So not a, not a personal designer, just laws of nature with goals built into them.
- Does that mean for you that the laws of nature can vary across time and place?
- It's either a fact of life or law of nature, like gravity or death.
- So these are sort of laws of nature with purposes built into them.
- Things that go against the laws of nature just don't exist.
- The world of MCS was based on science and laws of nature.
- It's a fact of life, death, taxes, gravity, certain laws of nature.
- Like I can only study things that, you know, are bound by the laws of nature.
- The third law of nature, according to Hobbes, is that you need to perform your covenants.
- I don't see anything in in the laws of nature in principle that would stop us from becoming an interstellar species.
- So the first law of nature is a two-part law.
Examples
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The laws of nature could be changing, Jack.
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Neighborhoods were seen as being subject to the laws of nature and going through life cycles.
Academic text (1997) -
So the very first law of nature has two parts.
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But once you get there, you have order, you have laws of nature, you are responsible.
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You understand the laws of nature.
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One of the laws of nature.
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How can we use the laws of nature to describe the situation?
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We are restricted by the laws of nature.
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Certain cognitive goals cannot possibly be achieved, given our understanding of logic or the laws of nature.
Academic text (1991) -
But still, I cannot help observing that the idea of caged birds is against the laws of nature.
Synonyms
633
3.8
A basic idea or law that explains how something works
206
5.0
A general rule from repeated observations that explains how nature works
28
3.8
A rule that describes how nature behaves, often shown with a formula
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a general principle governing the natural world' is directly compositional from 'law' (a general rule or principle) + 'of' (possession/relational) + 'nature' (the natural world), so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can infer the phrase. This construction and its logic are cross-linguistically common, making the phrase immediately accessible rather than idiomatic or metaphorical.
Etymology
Law of nature comes from the idea of calling the regular patterns of the world 'laws', as if nature follows fixed rules. Because people used law (a 'rule') and nature (the world around us), the phrase now means 'a general rule that describes how the natural world behaves'.