supernatural, unnatural

supernatural, unnatural
Supernatural means "above or beyond what is natural," "miraculous," "abnormal," "not explainable by natural laws," "attributed to the exercise of divine power": "Ancient Greeks and Romans believed in supernatural beings whom they called gods." "The existence of this enormous crater must be traced to supernatural forces." "The guided missile seemed to accelerate at supernatural speed." Unnatural means "contrived," "artificial," "inhuman," "violating natural feelings," "inconsistent with prevailing customs": "This child's treatment of his parents is unnatural." "It is unnatural for a physician to be a sadist." That which is supernatural is unnatural, but much that is unnatural is not supernatural. Related but relatively uncommon words are supranatural, a synonym of supernatural, and preternatural, meaning "exceptional," "unusual," and "abnormal."

Dictionary of problem words and expressions. . 1975.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • unnatural — See supernatural. See supernatural, unnatural …   Dictionary of problem words and expressions

  • supernatural — See supernatural, unnatural …   Dictionary of problem words and expressions

  • unnatural — [adj] not regular; artificial aberrant, abnormal, affected, anomalous, assumed, bizarre, concocted, contrary, contrived, ersatz*, extraordinary, fabricated, factitious, false, feigned, forced, freakish, freaky, imitation, incredible, insincere,… …   New thesaurus

  • supernatural — [adj] mysterious, not of this world abnormal, celestial, concealed, dark, fabulous, fairy, ghostly, heavenly, hidden, impenetrable, invisible, legendary, metaphysical, miraculous, mystic, mythical, mythological, numinous, obscure, occult,… …   New thesaurus

  • supernatural — 1. adjective a) Above nature; that which is beyond or added to nature, often so considered because it is given by God or some force beyond that which humans are born with. In Roman Catholic theology, is considered to be a supernatural addition to …   Wiktionary

  • supernatural — adjective 1) supernatural powers Syn: paranormal, psychic, magic, magical, occult, mystic, mystical, superhuman, supernormal; rare extramundane 2) a supernatural being Syn: ghostly, phantom …   Thesaurus of popular words

  • supernatural — Synonyms and related words: Christlike, Christly, abnormal, airy, anagogic, arcane, asomatous, astral, bodiless, cabalic, cabalistic, celestial, dark, decarnate, decarnated, discarnate, disembodied, divine, ectoplasmic, eerie, eeriness, elfdom,… …   Moby Thesaurus

  • supernatural — I (New American Roget s College Thesaurus) adj. miraculous, preternatural; abnormal, unearthly, superhuman, occult. See demon, universe.Ant., earthly, worldly. II (Roget s IV) modif. 1. [Divine] Syn. celestial, godlike, almighty, spiritual,… …   English dictionary for students

  • unnatural — adjective Not natural; supernatural or artificial. Ant: natural …   Wiktionary

  • unnatural — Synonyms and related words: Gongoresque, Gongoristic, Marinistic, aberrant, abnormal, affected, amorphous, anomalistic, anomalous, apocryphal, artificial, assumed, bastard, bent, bestial, bizarre, bogus, brummagem, callous, calloused, cold, cold… …   Moby Thesaurus

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”