second nature
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Something that is done automatically or with ease
Literally: a nature that comes second
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
For another — here was she with no experience whatsoever of professional interviewing techniques — not even a rank amateur, in fact — yet she was about to pretend that interviewing was second nature to her.
It'll get to be second nature, don't worry.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “second nature” mean?
Something that is done automatically or with ease Literally: a nature that comes second
Is “second nature” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.