Perinormal

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Prepathological; lying between normal and pathological. not-comparable
  2. 2
    Having previously been thought to be a paranormal phenomenon, but having since been scientifically verified as natural. not-comparable

    "2007 March 3, Sam Vaknin, Ph.D., “Parapsychology and the Paranormal”, The Paranormal & Ghost Society, Google Groups The eventual acceptance by the scientific community and incorporation into the mainstream of science of phenomena that were once considered paranormal and then perinormal (e.g., hypnotism)."

Example

More examples

"2007 March 3, Sam Vaknin, Ph.D., “Parapsychology and the Paranormal”, The Paranormal & Ghost Society, Google Groups The eventual acceptance by the scientific community and incorporation into the mainstream of science of phenomena that were once considered paranormal and then perinormal (e.g., hypnotism)."

Etymology

From peri- + normal. Sense 2: by analogy with paranormal, and apparently coined by Richard Dawkins, though he does not claim to have been its sole originator.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.