Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Surpassing what is normal or usual; extraordinary.
- adjective Transcending the natural or material order; supernatural.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Being beyond what is natural, or different from what is natural; extraordinary: being out of the regular or natural course of things: distinguished from
supernatural , being above nature, and unnatural, being contrary to nature. - Synonyms Miraculous, etc. See
supernatural .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Beyond of different from what is natural, or according to the regular course of things, but not clearly supernatural or miraculous; strange; inexplicable; extraordinary; uncommon; irregular; abnormal
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Beyond ordifferent from what is natural oraccording to theregular course of things;strange ;inexplicable ;extraordinary ;abnormal . - adjective dated Having an
existence outside of thenatural world. In this sense, everythingsupernatural is also preternatural.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective surpassing the ordinary or normal
- adjective existing outside of or not in accordance with nature
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Conning back for these posts, it was no longer a stream, but more of a river of humanity, with everyone in preternatural good cheer.
At Invesco Now... 2008
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Conning back for these posts, it was no longer a stream, but more of a river of humanity, with everyone in preternatural good cheer.
Archive 2008-08-01 2008
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Following up on a halloween coversation about ghosts, most people don't know the word preternatural--often incorrectly using the word supernatural ("above nature") when they mean preternatural ("beyond nature").
Supernatural or preternatural? Fr Timothy Matkin 2006
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Following up on a halloween coversation about ghosts, most people don't know the word preternatural--often incorrectly using the word supernatural ("above nature") when they mean preternatural ("beyond nature").
Archive 2006-11-01 Fr Timothy Matkin 2006
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His upper jaw was furnished with two long white sharp-pointed teeth or fangs, such as the reader may have observed in the chaps of a wolf, or full-grown mastiff, and an anatomist would describe as a preternatural elongation of the dentes canini.
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Philo's writings, Jewish demonology was propagated among Christian converts, and the Gnostics quickly absorbed and spread the notion of preternatural interposition.
Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing George Barton Cutten
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[49] By occultism is meant the belief in, and the claim to be able to use, a certain range of forces neither natural, nor, technically, supernatural, but more properly to be called preternatural -- often, though by no means always, for evil or selfish ends.
The Builders A Story and Study of Masonry Joseph Fort Newton 1913
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There are also secret societies which guard what may be called the preternatural tradition of the tribe, and deduce therefrom the decisions to be arrived at.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1: Aachen-Assize 1840-1916 1913
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His upper jaw was furnished with two long white sharp-pointed teeth or fangs, such as the reader may have observed in the chaps of a wolf, or full-grown mastiff, and an anatomist would describe as a preternatural elongation of the dentes canini.
The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves Tobias George Smollett 1746
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The popular imagination seems to buy into a mythic understanding of Apple — that Steve Jobs has some kind of preternatural design compass embedded in his brain stem.
factoryjoe commented on the word preternatural
If I don't lose control
Explore and not explode
A preternatural other plane
With the power to maintain
October 18, 2007
WanderlustDreamer commented on the word preternatural
Word used in Chapter 23 of Ron Chernow's biography WASHINGTON to describe GWs composure during Second Battle of Trenton.
July 5, 2015