soothsaying

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun the art or gift of prophecy (or the pretense of prophecy) by supernatural means

From sooth (“truth”) + saying.

And on the morrow, when the day was far spent, such preparations were made as were necessary to enable her to accomplish her soothsaying. — The True Story Book, Unknown
This cheerful acquiescence in the dream-experience has likewise been embodied by the Greeks in their Apollo: for Apollo, as the god of all shaping energies, is also the soothsaying god. — The Birth of Tragedy; or, Hellenism and Pessimism, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
I rail at the theistic credulity of Voltaire, the amoristic superstition of Shelley, the revival of tribal soothsaying and idolatrous rites which Huxley called Science and mistook for an advance on the Pentateuch, no less than at the welter of ecclesiastical and professional humbug which saves the face of the stupid system of violence and robbery which we call Law and Industry. — Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy, Bernard Shaw

divination, foretelling, fortune telling

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