miracle
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmɪɹ.ə.kəl/
ipa: [ˈmɪɹ.ə.kl̩]
ipa: /ˈmiɹ.ə.kəl/
ipa: [ˈmiɹ.ə.kl̩]
note: Indic
ipa: /mɪˈra.kl̩/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈmɪr.ə.kl̩/
Forms: form: miracles
Etymology: From Middle English miracle, from Old French miracle, from Latin mīrāculum (“object of wonder”), from mīror (“to wonder at”), from mīrus (“wonderful”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meyh₂- (“to smile, to be astonished”). Doublet of milagro and miraculum. Partially displaced native wonder, from Old English wundor (“miracle, wonder”).
Senses: examples: text: Many religious beliefs are based on miracles.
text: An example of a miracle associated with Muhammad is the splitting of the moon.
text: That’s fantastic! And he’s right, it is a miracle! E-Except when you think about it, it’s actually not, it’s science, which I’d argue is actually better and more convenient than a miracle because you don’t have to spend the next 2000 years worshipping the scientists, you can just be like, “thanks!”
ref: 2018 July 1, “Gene Editing”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 5, episode 18, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:
glosses: An event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin.
examples: text: Secondly, it was a miracle that a document hammered out with such difficulty, satisfying very few of its authors completely and satisfying some of them very little, would turn out to be the most successful political invention in history.
ref: 1966 November 25, “A Great Document Made by Wisdom and Luck”, in Life, volume 61, number 22, page 13:
text: It was a miracle that I survived that ditching in the high waves because I had my seat belt and shoulder harness unbuckled in anticipation of bailing out.
ref: 1993, Hatch N. Gardner, Frank H. Winter, P-51 Mustang, Turner Publishing Company, page 78:
text: Seen in this light it was a miracle of economic history that Europe was able to undertake so much higher a proportion of its expansion overseas, and secure a massive injection of resources and big markets without a commensurate growth in her numbers.
ref: 2003, Eric Lionel Jones, The European miracle: environments, economies, and geopolitics in the history of Europe and Asia, Cambridge University Press, page 218:
glosses: A fortunate outcome that prevails despite overwhelming odds against it.
examples: text: The home of our kings, over which you tread as you pace the immense hall known as the Salle des Pas-Perdus, was a miracle of architecture.
ref: 1847, Honoré de Balzac, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, page 323:
text: It was a miracle of engineering that made possible, with the cheap electricity the dam generated, another kind of miracle: the bizarre, superilluminated city of Las Vegas, Nevada.
ref: 2008, Joseph R. Conlin, The American Past: A Survey of American History, Cengage Learning, page 670:
glosses: An awesome and exceptional example of something.
Derived terms: European miracle
minor miracle
miracle berry
miracle drug
miracle fruit
miracle hole
miracle mile
miracle-monger
miraclemonger
miracle play
miracle worker
miraclist
miraculous
miraculously
miraculousness
outmiracle
small miracle
unmiracle