naturalism.

1. An artistic or literary approach presenting life as shaped by heredity, environment and material conditions, often through close observation.

2. A view or approach explaining phenomena through natural rather than supernatural causes.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• literary naturalism
• naturalism in fiction

On the page

The critic related the novel’s emphasis on material conditions to literary naturalism.

Naturalism in the account concerned the shaping environment rather than decorative realism alone.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: artistic orientation, figurative interpretation, life writing, narrative knowledge. Disciplines: literary writing, literary analysis, advanced general English. Commonness: moderately common.