clairvoyant

[ klair-voi-uhnt ]
See synonyms for clairvoyant on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. having or claiming to have the power of seeing objects or actions beyond the range of natural vision: Not being clairvoyant, I did not foresee the danger of ignoring her advice.

  2. of, by, or pertaining to clairvoyance: Unlike more talented witches, I had to make do with love potions and occasional clairvoyant visions.

noun
  1. a clairvoyant person: A clever clairvoyant could make a fortune in the stock market.

Origin of clairvoyant

1
First recorded in 1665–75; from French: literally, “clear seeing,” equivalent to clair “clear, clearly ”+ voyant “seeing” (present participle of voir “to see,” from Latin vidēre ); see origin at clear, wit,-ant

word story For clairvoyant

Clairvoyant literally means “clear-sighted” in French, and for nearly 200 years that is what it meant in English as well. It wasn’t until the mid-19th century that it took on the meaning of “having psychic gifts” or “seeing beyond” that it carries today.
In the 19th century, the term clairvoyant was widely used in a medical context. An especially astute doctor might be able to see a patient’s symptoms and try to make a “clairvoyant diagnosis.” While some of these doctors were legitimate and extremely skilled, the term “clairvoyant physician” was generally used to describe your typical 19th-century quack.
As the meaning of clairvoyant started to shift, reference books of the time attempted to approximate the new uses of the word. The 1873 edition of The American Cyclopaedia describes a clairvoyant as someone who can see through opaque objects, therefore possessing the power to “read a book unopened, or a letter which is enclosed in a solid wood box.” Today, however, clairvoyant carries more spiritual connotations, and such skills would never be cheapened by freak-show displays like divining the text of an unopened book. Rather, the modern clairvoyant prefers only to “see” things that cannot be easily refuted by disbelieving skeptics.

Other words for clairvoyant

Other words from clairvoyant

  • clair·voy·ant·ly, adverb

Words Nearby clairvoyant

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How to use clairvoyant in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for clairvoyant

clairvoyant

/ (klɛəˈvɔɪənt) /


adjective
  1. of, possessing, or relating to clairvoyance

  2. having great insight or second sight

noun
  1. a person claiming to have the power to foretell future events

Derived forms of clairvoyant

  • clairvoyantly, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012