Preternatural means beyond what's normal or natural. It often describes abilities, qualities, or events that seem to exceed ordinary human limits and feel almost supernatural or magical.

When a basketball player has preternatural awareness on the court, she seems to know where every teammate and opponent is without looking, anticipating plays before they happen. Her skill isn't magical: it comes from thousands of hours of practice, but it's so refined that it feels almost superhuman. A detective with preternatural powers of observation might notice tiny details that everyone else misses, like Sherlock Holmes spotting a speck of mud that helps solve a case.

The word captures that zone between “really good” and “seemingly impossible.” A student with preternatural memory can recall enormous amounts of information with unusual accuracy. An athlete with preternatural reflexes reacts faster than seems humanly possible, yet still within the bounds of human biology.

Preternatural suggests something uncanny or extraordinary. When you meet someone whose abilities make you think “how is that even possible?” but you know they're not using magic or breaking the laws of physics, preternatural is a strong word to use. It's nature pushed to its absolute limit, developed through talent and dedication until it feels almost miraculous.