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supernatural

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

12 characters

Language

English

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "supernatural", 12-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "supernatural" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "supernatural" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

supernatural is anEnglishadj. It means: Above nature; beyond or added to nature, often so considered because it is given by a deity or some force beyond that with which humans are born. Pronounced /ˌs(j)uː.pəˈnæ.tʃə.ɹəl/. It ranks #8,490 in English word frequency.

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Key facts for supernatural
PropertyValue
Headwordsupernatural
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdj
IPA/ˌs(j)uː.pəˈnæ.tʃə.ɹəl/
Letters12
Frequency rank#8,490
Misspellings tracked18
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of supernatural in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for supernatural is 12 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌs(j)uː.pəˈnæ.tʃə.ɹəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,490 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 18 documented wrong-spelling variants for supernatural, with forms such as "spuernatural", "ssupernatural", and "sueprnatural". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English supernatural, supernaturel, from Middle French supernaturel, from Latin supernātūrālis, from super (“above”) + nātūra (“nature; that which we are born with”), from nātus (“born”), perfect passive participle of nāscī (“to be born”) + adje… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is supernatural, spelled S-U-P-E-R-N-A-T-U-R-A-L, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Above nature; beyond or added to nature, often so considered because it is given by a deity or some force beyond that with which humans are born.
  2. 2
    Not of the usual; not natural; altered by forces that are not understood fully, if at all.

Etymology

From Middle English supernatural, supernaturel, from Middle French supernaturel, from Latin supernātūrālis, from super (“above”) + nātūra (“nature; that which we are born with”), from nātus (“born”), perfect passive participle of nāscī (“to be born”) + adjective suffix -ālis. By surface analysis, super- + natural.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: spuernatural,ssupernatural,sueprnatural,supenratural,superantural,supernatrual,supernattural,supernatuarl,supernaturall,supernaturla,supernaturral,supernautral,supernnatural,superntaural,superrnatural,suppernatural,suprenatural,uspernatural

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for supernatural

Misspelling Variants of "supernatural"

spuernatural12ssupernatural13sueprnatural12supenratural12superantural12supernatrual12supernattural13supernatuarl12
Misspelling Variants of "supernatural"

Frequency rank: #8,490 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "supernatural"?
"supernatural" is spelled S-U-P-E-R-N-A-T-U-R-A-L. The IPA pronunciation is /ˌs(j)uː.pəˈnæ.tʃə.ɹəl/.
What does "supernatural" mean?
As an adj, "supernatural" means: Above nature; beyond or added to nature, often so considered because it is given by a deity or some force beyond that with which humans are born.
What are common misspellings of "supernatural"?
Common misspellings include "spuernatural", "ssupernatural", "sueprnatural", "supenratural", "superantural". The correct spelling is "supernatural".
How do you pronounce "supernatural"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "supernatural" is /ˌs(j)uː.pəˈnæ.tʃə.ɹəl/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "supernatural"?
From Middle English supernatural, supernaturel, from Middle French supernaturel, from Latin supernātūrālis, from super (“above”) + nātūra (“nature; that which we are born with”), from nātus (“born”), perfect passive participle of nāscī (“to be bor... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.