The existing system of things; the universe of matter, energy, time and space; the physical world; all of creation. Contrasted with the world of mankind, with its mental and social phenomena.

The personified sum and order of causes and effects; the powers which produce existing phenomena, whether in the total or in detail; the agencies which carry on the processes of creation or of being; -- often conceived of as a single and separate entity, embodying the total of all finite agencies and forces as disconnected from a creating or ordering intelligence; as, produced by nature; the forces of nature.

That inherently intelligent collection of forces, (natural laws) and manifestations, (life forms) which act to evolve consciousness through matter.

A Latin-derived word literally meaning "what will be born." A famous German playwright, Friedrich Schiller, once defined nature as "that which is, in and of itself." Nature is usually contrasted with art, which is what mankind does by free will.

Gaea, the world-mother, the primal force of life, ruler of all nature spirits and one of the Six.

the natural physical world including plants and animals and landscapes etc.; "they tried to preserve nature as they found it"

A general term for all aspects of the physical world other than humans such as animal and plant life; features of earth, and so on. An Abstract Entity regarded as regulating or epitomizing the general activities of plants and animals especially higher animals.

Traditionally personified as Mother Nature. The creative and controlling power operating in the physical world, and the immediate cause of all phenomena within it. Or the inherent and inseparable combination of qualities essentially pertaining to anything and giving it its fundamental character. Or the inherent power or impulse by which the activity of living organisms is directed or controlled. From the conventional point of view of science, nature is made up of matter, fields, and energy and is governed by the laws of nature, usually thought to be eternal.

The external world in its entirety.

The system of all phenomena in space and time; the totality of physical reality. It is both a scientific and philosophic concept appearing in all historic eras. (Webster 2d; Dr. James H. Cassedy, NLM History of Medicine Division)

is used in its broadest meaning to include all animate and inanimate objects, all forms of life, and all that exists in the entire universe from its unmanifest unified level to all its expressions, forms, and phenomena.

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical universe, material world or material universe. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The term generally does not include manufactured objects and human interaction unless qualified in ways such as, e.g., "human nature" or "the whole of nature".