Definitions

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

  • noun The art or act of foretelling future events or revealing occult knowledge by means of augury or an alleged supernatural agency.
  • noun An inspired guess or presentiment.
  • noun Something that has been divined.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of divining; the pretended art of foretelling by supernatural or magical means that which is future, or of discovering that which is hidden or obscure.
  • noun Figuratively, a sort of instinctive prevision; a presentiment and knowledge of a future event or events; conjectural presage: omen.
  • noun In anc. Rom. law: A transaction in a criminal suit, in which one of several accusers of one and the same person was chosen as the chief prosecutor in the case, the others joining in it only as subscribers.
  • noun The speech or oration asking authority to fill such a rôle.

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

  • noun The act of divining; a foreseeing or foretelling of future events; the pretended art discovering secret or future by preternatural means.
  • noun An indication of what is future or secret; augury omen; conjectural presage; prediction.

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

  • noun uncountable The act of divining; a foreseeing or foretelling of future events.
  • noun The pretended art of discovering secrets or the future by preternatural means.
  • noun countable An indication of what is future or secret; augury omen; conjectural presage; prediction.

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

  • noun successful conjecture by unusual insight or good luck
  • noun the art or gift of prophecy (or the pretense of prophecy) by supernatural means
  • noun a prediction uttered under divine inspiration

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Myomancy (divination from the movements of mice) and other divination terms.

    May « 2009 « Sentence first 2009

  • Myomancy (divination from the movements of mice) and other divination terms.

    Link love: language (3) 2009

  • More to the point, however, no divination is required to conclude that it is defendant's promotional efforts in publicizing her close encounters with these spirits which fostered the home's reputation in the community.

    First Department 2008

  • More to the point, however, no divination is required to conclude that it is defendant's promotional efforts in publicizing her close encounters with these spirits which fostered the home's reputation in the community.

    Funny stuff 2007

  • IMHO, any religion that starts out with the idea that Hebrews migrated to North America in 600 B.C. and that its essential truths were uncovered by some guy in upstate New York in the 1820's by deciphering buried golden tablets written in Egyptian (which are now, tragically, not available for inspection) using divination is right up there with the, er, imaginative stylings of L. Ron Hubbard.

    Sound Politics: Mitt Romney for President: Part II, the Man 2006

  • Hence the word divination has a sinister signification.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 5: Diocese-Fathers of Mercy 1840-1916 1913

  • Its leaves are used in divination to find out witches, thieves, liars, etc., and it is the chosen haunt of ghosts and hobgoblins of all sorts – hence its frequent appearance in folk-lore.

    Tales of the Punjab 1894

  • When they hear that Nebuchadnezzar by his divination is directed to

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi) 1721

  • I think we each would’ve received O. W.L.s in divination, don’t you?

    Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » Something New 2007

  • For this we know is the prize of magical incantations, namely divination and prophecy.

    The Defense Apuleius 2008

Comments

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  • successful conjecture by unusual insight or good luck, conversely; good insight or unusual luck...

    July 22, 2008