Cledonomancy

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Divination through interpreting chance remarks or events. uncountable

    "The consultant whispered his questions into the god's ear, then stopped his own ears, went out, and, when he got beyond the market-place, listened for chance words from passers-by. These were construed into an answer. This form of divination (cledonomancy) remained popular at all periods."

Example

More examples

"The consultant whispered his questions into the god's ear, then stopped his own ears, went out, and, when he got beyond the market-place, listened for chance words from passers-by. These were construed into an answer. This form of divination (cledonomancy) remained popular at all periods."

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κληδών (klēdṓn, “an omen”) + -mancy.

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