Word of the Day

: November 27, 2007

clairvoyant

adjective klair-VOI-unt

What It Means

1 : having the ability to see beyond the range of ordinary perception

2 : of or relating to the power or faculty of discerning objects not present to the senses

clairvoyant in Context

Minna has such an uncanny ability to predict which books will be bestsellers, I'd swear she's clairvoyant.

Did You Know?

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?")

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.