Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Beyond the range of normal experience or scientific explanation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to parapsychology; pertaining to forces or mental processes, such as extrasensory perception or psychokinesis, outside the possibilities defined by natural or scientific laws.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective That which cannot be explained by scientific methods.
  • adjective Supernatural.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective seemingly outside normal sensory channels
  • adjective not in accordance with scientific laws

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

para- (“above, beyond; abnormal”) +‎ normal; compare supernatural.

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Examples

  • The book itself goes along the lines of paranormal romance and urban fantasy, settling for the title paranormal suspense.

    "Dark Maiden" by Norma Lehr 2008

  • The book itself goes along the lines of paranormal romance and urban fantasy, settling for the title paranormal suspense.

    Archive 2008-05-01 2008

  • When considering these and other unconventional scientific topics, it might be useful for science journalists to abandon the term paranormal and think about aspects of them that may be normal and natural, and therefore worthy of normal journalistic inquiry.

    American Chronicle American Chronicle 2010

  • He argues that perhaps the strongest single drive in human beings is what he calls the paranormal belief imperative.

    Debunking Christianity 2009

  • The discovery was made Friday night when the Brooke County Paranormal Society visited the mansion to conduct what they call a paranormal investigation, something they do frequently at different locations.

    News for NBC13.com 2009

  • He argues that perhaps the strongest single drive in human beings is what he calls the paranormal belief imperative.

    Atheist Blogs Aggregated 2008

  • I'm not sure what the word "paranormal" is supposed to mean, other than phenomena that you personally believe don't exist.

    A Big-Picture Look At Darwinism 2006

  • Paula: I wasn’t trying to insult with the term paranormal romance.

    Matt Cook’s Blood Magic series 2009

  • Everybody's haunted by something, even people who think the paranormal is stupid.

    Jennifer Finney Boylan discusses "I'm Looking Through You" 2010

  • The combination of mystery and paranormal is a fond personal favorite, and a reimagining of this story is one I think I would have fun with, from both a creative and a viewer standpoint.

    MIND MELD: SciFi TV Shows That Deserve A Remake (with Videos) 2010

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