miracles

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of miracle.

   Doctors called his sudden recovery one of the great miracles of modern medicine.

   The shrine drew pilgrims hoping for miracles of healing.

   Note

   This plural is formed regularly with -s, and it carries every noun meaning the word has: events held to be supernatural, fortunate outcomes won against overwhelming odds, and awesome, exceptional examples of something. Miracles of healing at a shrine and the miracles of modern medicine use one form for quite different ideas. The same spelling also serves the verb form, but the noun takes articles and modifiers, while the verb follows a subject.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of miracle.

   Note

   The verb behind this form is transitive: to miracle something is to affect it by a miracle, to work a miracle upon it. So the form wants a singular subject before it and an object after it, as when a saint miracles the sick back to health. Only the sentence around it separates it from the plural noun, whose spelling it shares.

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