PRETERNATURAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does preternatural mean? 

• PRETERNATURAL (adjective)
  The adjective PRETERNATURAL has 2 senses:

1. surpassing the ordinary or normal

2. existing outside of or not in accordance with nature

  Familiarity information: PRETERNATURAL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRETERNATURAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Surpassing the ordinary or normal

Synonyms:

preternatural; uncanny

Context example:

his uncanny sense of direction

Similar:

extraordinary (beyond what is ordinary or usual; highly unusual or exceptional or remarkable)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Existing outside of or not in accordance with nature

Synonyms:

nonnatural; otherworldly; preternatural; transcendental

Context example:

find transcendental motives for sublunary action

Similar:

supernatural (not existing in nature or subject to explanation according to natural laws; not physical or material)

 Context examples 

I remember but little of the journey; I only know that the day seemed to me of a preternatural length, and that we appeared to travel over hundreds of miles of road.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

All at once we heard the crow of a cock coming up with preternatural shrillness through the clear morning air; Count Dracula, jumping to his feet, said:—Why, there is the morning again!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

All his bluster had gone, and he seemed to have caught the contagion of preternatural calm.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I wiped my tears and hushed my sobs, fearful lest any sign of violent grief might waken a preternatural voice to comfort me, or elicit from the gloom some haloed face, bending over me with strange pity.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I really did not expect any Grace to answer; for the laugh was as tragic, as preternatural a laugh as any I ever heard; and, but that it was high noon, and that no circumstance of ghostliness accompanied the curious cachinnation; but that neither scene nor season favoured fear, I should have been superstitiously afraid.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She had Roman features and a double chin, disappearing into a throat like a pillar: these features appeared to me not only inflated and darkened, but even furrowed with pride; and the chin was sustained by the same principle, in a position of almost preternatural erectness.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)