How to Use preternatural in a Sentence

preternatural

adjective
  • There was a preternatural quiet in the house.
  • She has a preternatural ability to charm people.
  • Or is this a petulant man who has a preternatural gift for trolling?
    — Jennifer Szalai, New York Times, 7 Oct. 2019
  • Take his preternatural bat-to-ball skills.
    — Spencer Nusbaum, New York Times, 28 May 2026
  • James has a preternatural ability to see the game, to think two moves ahead.
    — Christopher L. Gasper, BostonGlobe.com, 16 May 2018
  • From a young age, Swift had a preternatural belief in herself and the guts to take big risks.
    — Anne Sugar, Forbes.com, 21 May 2025
  • Amid its farce, Ludlam’s play keeps an eye on the weight of a preternatural artistic gift.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 19 Sep. 2025
  • Four lifelong friends find a preternatural pair of jeans that appear to fit them all in spite of their varying body types.
    — Tara Paniogue, latimes.com, 25 May 2018
  • She was not imbued with any preternatural wit, or presence, or beauty, or grace.
    — Monica Hesse, Washington Post, 8 Sep. 2022
  • But his trademark trait — the one that observers say gives him a small chance of success — is his preternatural speed.
    — Alexander Smith, NBC News, 19 Jan. 2024
  • The ladies are drawn to his Colombian good looks and preternatural tan, his sense of humor, talent, and youth.
    — Whitney Robinson, Town & Country, 17 Aug. 2017
  • The star has gone back and forth between red and blonde hair over the years, but her strands have always retained their preternatural polish.
    — Teryn Payne, Teen Vogue, 14 Jan. 2018
  • His music was all bravado and swagger, topped off by a preternatural charm that could draw in even the most resistant.
    — Briana Younger, The New Yorker, 20 Feb. 2020
  • None of them have the same preternatural sense of how fast an image can travel that comes with being a digital native.
    — José Criales-Unzueta, Vanity Fair, 12 May 2026
  • Zanis had a very tolerant wife, a preternatural ability to stay awake on long drives and a new calling.
    — Mark Oppenheimer, WSJ, 6 Oct. 2021
  • As with the others, Alcaraz’s preternatural gifts and skills played the biggest role in his good fortune.
    — Matthew Futterman, New York Times, 28 May 2023
  • What sets Clair apart, besides his preternatural skill, is his honesty, according to those who know him.
    — Aaron Kinney, The Mercury News, 2 Jan. 2017
  • Smith had an almost preternatural ability to discern balls from strikes — and to decide which pitches to swing at.
    — Nick Piecoro, The Arizona Republic, 4 Mar. 2021
  • Still, that preternatural calm may have a biological basis, at least in part.
    — Alex Wigglesworth, Los Angeles Times, 23 Jan. 2026
  • The next step is to up the difficulty of the test and see at what level this preternatural ability to see the target fails.
    — Veronique Greenwood, Discover Magazine, 10 May 2011
  • Yet, through it all, the Kushner-Trumps have a preternatural skill with optics.
    — Emily Jane Fox, vanityfair.com, 20 July 2017
  • As the trial approached, a preternatural calm seemed to descend on Bamber.
    — Heidi Blake, The New Yorker, 29 July 2024
  • As a team with a ton of continuity, the Aces have almost a preternatural sense for one another on the court.
    — Devin Robertson, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Oct. 2025
  • Altuve singled in the fifth and then showed off his preternatural bat-to-ball skills in the seventh, slashing at the pitch above his eyes and smiling wide at first base.
    — Arkansas Online, 31 Oct. 2022
  • Growing up at the movies gave David Picker a preternatural sense for what stars and stories people would like to see on screen.
    — Patrick McGroarty, WSJ, 26 Apr. 2019
  • And there are the games with color, the white fabrics that are never white, yet seem to blaze with the preternatural whiteness of sheets bleached and dried in the southern sun.
    — Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 15 June 2022
  • Musk, meanwhile, has the preternatural ability to move crypto markets with the vaguest of Tweets.
    — Chris Morris, Fortune, 25 June 2021
  • Steve Jobs, its founder, had a preternatural ability to engross, entertain, and sell from the stage.
    — Robert Hackett, Fortune, 19 Mar. 2020
  • The world’s grandest players—or, the ones in movies and television shows, at least—possess something preternatural.
    — Angela Watercutter, Wired, 28 Oct. 2020
  • Or suddenly have a preternatural understanding of the ins and outs of soccer.
    — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 17 May 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'preternatural.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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