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The Meaning of Clairvoyant Is Clear
In French, "clairvoyant" literally means "clear-seeing," mentally or optically. The term made a brief appearance in English in the 17th century, as an adjective suggesting a keen sense of perception, but it did not become firmly established in the language until the 19th century. Today we most often apply this adjective to someone who essentially has ESP, an unexplainable ability to know or perceive things that others cannot. (We also now use "clairvoyant" as a noun for a person who has this ability.) But although "clairvoyant" is nearly always used in the ESP sense these days, the allusion to special powers frequently isn't dead serious. ("Are you clairvoyant? How did you know I was going to wear my flamingo shirt?")
Examples of clairvoyant in a Sentence
Dana Feldman, Forbes, 29 Oct. 2024
That should be hard to pull off in a movie that doesn’t acknowledge the existence of Spider-Man, and yet Venom succeeds where Morbius and Madame Web—Jared Leto’s vampiric superhero and Dakota Johnson’s clairvoyant seer—stumble.
—James Grebey, TIME, 25 Oct. 2024
Tracy Brown, Los Angeles Times, 30 Oct. 2024
But on his new Netflix show Live from the Other Side with Tyler Henry, the sought-after celebrity clairvoyant is certainly making a dent in that number.
—Samantha Allen, Them, 23 Oct. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near clairvoyant
Cite this Entry
“Clairvoyant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clairvoyant. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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clairvoyant
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clairvoyant
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clairvoyant
1 of 2 adjective
clairvoyant
2 of 2 noun
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