Supernatural

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Supernatural \Su`per*nat"u*ral\, a. [Pref. super- + natural: cf.
     OF. supernaturel, F. surnaturel.]
     Being beyond, or exceeding, the power or laws of nature;
     miraculous.
     [1913 Webster]
  


     Syn: Preternatural.
  
     Usage: {Supernatural}, {Preternatural}. Preternatural
            signifies beside nature, and supernatural, above or
            beyond nature. What is very greatly aside from the
            ordinary course of things is preternatural; what is
            above or beyond the established laws of the universe
            is supernatural. The dark day which terrified all
            Europe nearly a century ago was preternatural; the
            resurrection of the dead is supernatural. "That form
            which the earth is under at present is preternatural,
            like a statue made and broken again." --T. Burnet.
            "Cures wrought by medicines are natural operations;
            but the miraculous ones wrought by Christ and his
            apostles were supernatural." --Boyle.
            [1913 Webster]
  
                  That is supernatural, whether it be, that is
                  either not in the chain of natural cause and
                  effect, or which acts on the chain of cause and
                  effect in nature, from without the chain.
                                                    --Bushnell.
            [1913 Webster]
  
                  We must not view creation as supernatural, but
                  we do look upon it as miraculous. --McCosh.
            [1913 Webster]
  
     {The supernatural}, whatever is above and beyond the scope,
        or the established course, of the laws of nature. "Nature
        and the supernatural." --H. Bushnell.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  supernatural
       adj : not existing in nature or subject to explanation according
             to natural laws; not physical or material;
             "supernatural forces and occurrences and beings" [ant:
             {natural}]
       n : supernatural forces and events and beings collectively; "She
           doesn't believe in the supernatural" [syn: {occult}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  154 Moby Thesaurus words for "supernatural":
     Christlike, Christly, abnormal, airy, anagogic, arcane, asomatous,
     astral, bodiless, cabalic, cabalistic, celestial, dark, decarnate,
     decarnated, discarnate, disembodied, divine, ectoplasmic, eerie,
     eeriness, elfdom, empyrean, esoteric, ethereal, etheric,
     exceptional, exorbitant, extramundane, extraordinary,
     extraterrestrial, extravagant, extreme, fabulous, faerie, fey,
     ghostish, ghostlike, ghostly, ghosty, godlike, godly, heavenly,
     hypernormal, hyperphysical, immaterial, immoderate, impalpable,
     imponderable, incarnate, incarnated, incorporate, incorporeal,
     inexplicable, inordinate, insubstantial, intangible,
     intercessional, intercessive, made flesh, magical, mediative,
     mediatory, metaphysic, metaphysical, miraculous, miraculousness,
     mysterious, mysteriousness, mystery, mystic, nonmaterial,
     nonphysical, numinous, numinousness, occult, otherworldliness,
     otherworldly, outstanding, paranormal, phantasmal, phantasmic,
     phantom, phantomic, phantomlike, phenomenal, preterhuman,
     preternatural, preternaturalism, preternormal, pretersensual,
     propitiative, propitiatory, psychic, rare, redemptive, remarkable,
     salvational, self-existent, shadowy, specterlike, spectral,
     spiritual, superhuman, superhumanity, superior, supermundane,
     supernaturalism, supernaturality, supernaturalness, supernature,
     supernormal, supernormalness, superphysical, superphysicalness,
     supersensible, supersensibleness, supersensual, supramundane,
     supranatural, supranaturalism, supranature, the occult,
     the supernatural, the supersensible, theosophical, theosophist,
     towering, transcendent, transcendental, transcendentalism,
     transmundane, ultramundane, uncanny, unconscionable, unearthliness,
     unearthly, unembodied, unexplainable, unextended, unfleshly,
     unhuman, unmeasurable, unnatural, unphysical, unreal,
     unsubstantial, unusual, unworldliness, unworldly, weird, witchery,
     wraithlike, wraithy