prophecy

/ˈprɑfəsi/

/ˈprɒfɪsi/

Other forms: prophecies

If a fortune teller made a prophecy that you were going to become a billionaire in your lifetime, you'd be pretty excited. A prophecy is a prediction, or a magical look into the future.

The noun prophecy means a magical foreknowledge, although it can also be used in a playful way to describe an ordinary guess or prediction about the future. So you could say, "Her prophecy for the weather next week is incredibly depressing." The word comes from the Greek prophetia — literally, "gift of interpreting the will of the gods". The verb form is prophesy, or predict, and it's spelled with an s instead of a c.

Definitions of prophecy

1. noun

   a prediction uttered under divine inspiration
   synonyms: divination

   types:

   oracle

   a prophecy (usually obscure or allegorical) revealed by a priest or priestess; believed to be infallible

   type of:

   forecasting, foretelling, prediction, prognostication

   a statement made about the future
2. noun

   knowledge of the future (usually said to be obtained from a divine source)
   synonyms: prognostication, vaticination

   types:

   crystal gazing

   staring into a crystal ball to arouse visions of future or distant events

   divination, foretelling, fortune telling, soothsaying

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

   arithmancy

   divination by means of numbers

   dowse, dowsing, rhabdomancy

   searching for underground water or minerals by using a dowsing rod

   geomancy

   divination by means of signs connected with the earth (as points taken at random or the arrangement of particles thrown down at random or from the configuration of a region and its relation to another)

   hydromancy

   divination by water (as by patterns seen in the ebb and flow of the tides)

   lithomancy

   divination by means of stones or stone talismans

   necromancy

   conjuring up the dead, especially for prophesying

   oneiromancy

   divination through the interpretation of dreams

   onomancy

   divination by the letters of a name

   chiromancy, palm reading, palmistry

   telling fortunes by lines on the palm of the hand

   pyromancy

   divination by fire or flames

   type of:

   anticipation, prediction, prevision

   the act of predicting (as by reasoning about the future)