Apantomancy

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Divination by chance meetings with any objects that present themselves, most commonly animals; for example, the superstition associated with a black cat crossing one's path. uncountable

    "Apantomancy: Divination by means of any objects which happen to present themselves. To this class belong the omens drawn from chance meetings with a hare, an eagle, etc."

Example

More examples

"Apantomancy: Divination by means of any objects which happen to present themselves. To this class belong the omens drawn from chance meetings with a hare, an eagle, etc."

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀπαντάω (apantáō, “to encounter”) and μαντεία (manteía, “prophecy”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.