Natal
adj, name ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Of or relating to birth.
"Sea turtles return to their natal beaches to nest."
- 2 Of or relating to the buttocks.
- 1 relating to or accompanying birth wordnet
- 2 of or relating to the buttocks wordnet
- 1 A former British colony in modern South Africa, existing from 1843 to 1910.
- 2 A former province of South Africa, reorganized in 1994 into the modern province of KwaZulu-Natal.
- 3 A municipality, the state capital of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Salmon and steelhead start their lives in freshwater streams and tributaries. They then migrate downstream, rearing and maturing, before they reach the ocean. They live in the ocean for 2 to 5 years, migrating thousands of miles, before beginning the journey upstream to their natal streams where they spawn to produce the next generation of fish."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *ǵn̥h₁tós Proto-Italic *gnātos Latin gnātus Latin nātus Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Latin nātālisbor. Middle English natal English natal From Middle English natal, natale (“native, one’s own; inherited; presiding over birthdays or births”), from Classical Latin nātālis (“natal”), from nātus, perfect active participle of nāscor (“I am born”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁-. Doublet of Natal and Noel.
From Classical Latin natis (“rump”) + -al.
From Portuguese Natal (“Christmas”), because the region in South Africa was discovered by the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama on Christmas Day, 1497. Doublet of natal and Noel.
Related phrases
More for "natal"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.