Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Divination by means of a wand or rod, especially for discovering underground water or ores.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Divination by a rod or wand; specifically, the attempt to discover things concealed in the earth, as ores, metals, or springs of water, by a divining-rod; bletonism; dousing.
Wiktionary
- n. Divination with a wand or rod; dowsing.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Same as rabdomancy.
WordNet 3.0
- n. searching for underground water or minerals by using a dowsing rod
Etymologies
- First attested in 1646. From Latin rhabdomantīa, from Ancient Greek ῥαβδομαντεία (rhabdomanteia), from ῥάβδος (rhabdos, "rod") + μαντεία (manteia, "divination"). (Wiktionary)
- Late Greek rhabdomanteia : Greek rhabdos, rod; see wer-2 in Indo-European roots + Greek -manteia, -mancy. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“98 We have not heard the last of this old “dowsing rod”: the latest form of rhabdomancy is an electrical-rod invented in the United”
“If it does, revoke, O student, your shrill _eheu_ for the Greekless and untrousered savage of the canoe, suppress your feelings, and go steadily into rhabdomancy with several divining-rods, in search of the Pierian spring which must surely exist somewhere among the guttural districts of the Ojibbeway tongue.”
“This deceptio visus, or product of rhabdomancy, easily effected by an adept of the”
“But our village friend, though perhaps constructively right in his philosophizing, was certainly very defective in his acquaintance with the time-honoured art of rhabdomancy.”
Myths and Myth-makers: Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology
“I refer to such organic forces as are popularly summed up under the words clairvoyance, mesmerism, rhabdomancy, animal magnetism, physical spiritualism.”
The Myths of the New World A Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America
“[FN#98] We have not heard the last of this old "dowsing rod": the latest form of rhabdomancy is an electrical-rod invented in the”
“Agreeably to the doctrines of rhabdomancy, formerly in vogue, and at the present moment not entirely discarded, a twig, usually of witchhazle, borne over the surface of the ground, indicates the presence of water to which it is instinctively alive, by stirring in the hand.”
“It is not water, but treasures which they profess to find by some hidden kind of rhabdomancy.”
“Rhabdomantic: "related to rhabdomancy" ( "divination by means of a rod or wand; spec. a technique for searching for underground water, minerals, etc.; dowsing").”
“But after sinking to a greater depth than ever had been known before, and spending nearly £200, they were finally obliged to consult the jowser, who found water at once.] a class of men who practise the Pagan rhabdomancy in a limited sense.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘rhabdomancy’.
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-mancy, -mantic
denoting or relating to divination by a specified means
geomancy, necromantic, legilimancy, necromancy, rhabdomancy, alectryomancy, aleuromancy, alomancy, alphitomancy, ambulomancy, anthracomancy, anthropomancy and 144 more...
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250 Spelling Words
A selected sampling of words for intermediate and advanced spellers.
orecchiette, rhabdomancy, guayabera, orthoepy, opisthenar, maguey, proem, ciabatta, cioppino, banns, concinnity, asthenia and 237 more...
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phrontistery-r
from phrontistery.info
rya, rutilant, ruthful, rutherford, ruth, rusticity, rusticate, Russophobia, Russophile, russet, russel, rushlight and 514 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
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good ones
grumble, fumble, bumble, stumble, crumble, mumble, jumble, humble, bramble, scramble, amble, ramble and 191 more...
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C. S. Bird – Grandiloquent Dictionary
All the words from the Grandiloquent Dictionary.
946 of these 2700 words do not yield any results in six different dictionaries, hence many of them might be misspellings.
More in...abacinate, abcedarian, abderian, ablegate, abligurition, ablutophobia, abnormous, acarophobia, acathasia, accipitrine, accidia, accubitus and 2690 more...
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It's Magic!!
catoptromancy, thaumaturgy, legerdemain, aeromancy, ailuromancy, alectryomancy, aleuromancy, alphitomancy, ambulomancy, anthomancy, anthracomancy, anthropomancy and 100 more...
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Turning and Twisting Tours
words in the nature of double spirals
swift, swerve, swirl, swivel, swarm, swag, swank, swoop, swinge, swarf, spire, esparto and 361 more...
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nobody's Words
blubber, poodle, quack, smite, pummel, fuzzy, onomatopoeia, ipsedixitism, pwn, cwm, nth, fluffy and 85 more...
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Esoteric
sibylline, arcane, skathe, hylozoism, phronesis, metapsychology, mager rosette, jnana, cryptid, sideromancy, nooplasm, mammetry and 14 more...
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Omnology
Names for disciplines, scientific or otherwise.
kymatology, ichthyology, helioseismology, formicology, aetiology, agnoiology, rhabdomancy, omphaloskepsis
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Dictionary Game
Words that I learned through the game of flipping open the dictionary and pointing to a random word. We play this on New Year's Eve at midnight, but I often play it just for fun.
Tweets
Looking for tweets for rhabdomancy.
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