A spectacularly improbable event that is attributed to divine intervention.

Of course, not eveything claimed to be a miracle is improbable, just that it may be thought so by an individual.

The name of the white buffalo calf born in Wisconsin in 1994, believed to be the first white buffalo born since 1933. The white buffalo and the legend of White Buffalo Calf Woman is extremely significant in many native cultures, particularly the Lakota people of the Black Hills of South Dakota, who still carry, father to son, the peace pipe said to have been given to the Lakota people along with the teachings of their sacred ceremonies by White Buffalo Calf Woman many many generations ago.

Mir"a*cle (?), n. [F., fr. L. miraculum, fr. mirari to wonder. See Marvel, and cf. Mirror.]

1.

A wonder or wonderful thing.

That miracle and queen of genus. Shak.

2.

Specifically: An event or effect contrary to the established constitution and course of things, or a deviation from the known laws of nature; a supernatural event, or one transcending the ordinary laws by which the universe is governed.

They considered not the miracle of the loaves. Mark vi. 52.

3.

A miracle play.

4.

A story or legend abounding in miracles.

[Obs.]

When said was all this miracle. Chaucer.

Miracle monger, an impostor who pretends to work miracles. -- Miracle play, one of the old dramatic entertainments founded on legends of saints and martyrs or (see 2d Mystery, 2) on events related in the Bible.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Mir"a*cle, v. t.

To make wonderful.

[Obs.]

Shak.

 

© Webster 1913.