Definition of "natural history" [natural history]

• The study and description of organisms and natural objects, especially their origins, evolution, and interrelationships. (noun)
• A collection of facts about the development of a natural process or entity: the natural history of early hominids as revealed in the fossil record. (noun)
• A work or treatise containing such facts. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "While Nora had worked her way methodically through the natural history collection, Tríona had found her own place in these stacks—a far, quiet corner where she was surrounded by books about gods and monsters, elves and mermaids, a whole universe of shape-shifters."
• "The Bestiary is a moralizing natural history of ancient origin, based on the Greek Physiologus."
• "Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round the world, under the Command of Capt."