What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Ethereal vs Preternatural - What's the difference?

ethereal | preternatural |

As adjectives the difference between ethereal and preternatural

is that ethereal is pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere; celestial; otherworldly; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions while preternatural is beyond or different from what is natural or according to the regular course of things; strange; inexplicable; extraordinary; abnormal.

ethereal

English

Alternative forms

* aethereal * aetherial * * (obsolete) * * (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere; celestial; otherworldly; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions.
  • * 1667 : , Paradise Lost , book VII
    • Go, heavenly guest, ethereal messenger.
  • * 1862 : , Walking .
    • I trust that we shall be more imaginative, that our thoughts will be clearer, fresher, and more ethereal , as our sky,...
  • Consisting of ether; hence, exceedingly light or airy; tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as form, manner, thought, etc.
  • * 1733 : , An Essay on Man
    • Vast chain of being, which from God began, Natures ethereal , human, angel, man.
  • Delicate, light and airy.

    • Derived terms

    * ethereality * ethereally * etherealness * etherealization * etherealisation * etherealizing

    References

    * American English forms

    preternatural

    English

    (wikipedia preternatural)

    Alternative forms

    * praeternatural * (archaic)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Beyond or different from what is natural or according to the regular course of things; strange; inexplicable; extraordinary; abnormal.
  • * 1882 , , The Red Man and the White Man in North America , p. 152,
    • Doubtless there has been some exaggeration in the picturesque and fanciful relations of the almost preternatural skill and cunning of the Indian, [...]
  • * '>citation
  • (dated) Having an existence outside of the natural world.
  • * 1817 , ",
    • Macbeth is like a record of a preternatural and tragical event.
  • * 1860 , ,
    • Not Leonore, in that preternatural midnight excursion with her phantom lover, was more terrified than poor Maggie in this entirely natural ride on a short-paced donkey, [...]
  • * 1925 , ",
    • Vansittart Smith, fixing his eyes upon the fellow's skin, was conscious of a sudden impression that there was something inhuman and preternatural about its appearance.

    Usage notes

    In modern secular use, refers to extraordinary but still natural phenomena, as in “preternatural' talent”. In religious and occult usage, used similarly to supernatural, meaning “outside of nature”, but usually to a lower level than (term) – it can be used synonymously (identical to supernatural), as a hypernym (a kind of supernatural), or a coordinate term (similar to supernatural, but a distinct category). For example, in Catholic theology, ' preternatural refers to properties of creatures like angels, while (term) refers to properties of God alone.

    Synonyms

    * (beyond or different from usual) abnormal, exceptional, extraordinary, uncanny * (not natural) paranormal, supernatural, unnatural

    Derived terms

    * preternaturally

    References

    *