natures

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of nature.

   The contrasting natures of the two brothers shaped the whole story.

   Philosophers have long debated the natures of good and evil.

   Note

   The plural belongs to the countable senses of nature: a person's innate character, or the sort or class a thing belongs to. Nature as the physical world is uncountable and takes no plural, so the natures of two brothers are their temperaments, never two landscapes. It usually follows of or a possessive, as in the natures of good and evil, or their differing natures.

2. 2
   verbobsolete

   Third-person singular simple present of nature.

   Note

   A verb form that rests on an obsolete verb: to nature once meant to endow something with its natural qualities, and that use has fallen away. The same spelling also serves as the plural noun, which is how most readers will take it. Used as a verb, natures will sound deliberately old-fashioned, so keep it for writing that wants that effect.

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