Cledonism
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Divination through the interpretation of words (written or spoken) encountered by chance. uncountable
"And indeed cledonism, or the putting of a prophetic sense on words spoken with another reference (John xi. 50 sq.) can never have been the business of a class of men (Jud. ix. 37, Jer. xxvii. 9, Micah v. 12), or been so marked a type of divination that Isaiah could speak of it as characteristically Philistine, and that Isa. lvii. 3 could found on it a name of opprobrium."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"And indeed cledonism, or the putting of a prophetic sense on words spoken with another reference (John xi. 50 sq.) can never have been the business of a class of men (Jud. ix. 37, Jer. xxvii. 9, Micah v. 12), or been so marked a type of divination that Isaiah could speak of it as characteristically Philistine, and that Isa. lvii. 3 could found on it a name of opprobrium."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek κληδών (klēdṓn, “an omen”) + -ism.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.