Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The act or practice of foretelling the future by drawing lots.
- n. Sorcery; witchcraft.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act, practice, or art of drawing lots; interpretation, divination, or decision by lot; hence, loosely, sorcery; magic.
Wiktionary
- n. Witchcraft, magic, especially as a means of making decisions or predictions.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act or practice of drawing lots; divination by drawing lots.
Etymologies
- From Old French sortilège, from mediæval Latin sortilegium, from Latin sortilegus ("sorcerer, diviner"), from sors ("sort") + legere ("choose") (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French, from Medieval Latin sortilegium, from sortilegus, diviner : Latin sors, sort-, lot; see ser-2 in Indo-European roots + Latin legere, to read; see leg- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The same would seem to apply to the law concerning duels, save that it approaches nearer to the common kind of sortilege, since no miraculous effect is expected thereupon, unless the combatants be very unequal in strength or skill.”
“She might have tossed up, having coins in her pocket, _heads or tails_? but this kind of sortilege was then coming to be thought irreligious in Christendom, as a Jewish and a”
“I discovered this art that is his and his alone, to return tirelessly to the same stations of a life whose magic spells he interminably examines, in order to break the sortilege.”
The Huffington Post: Bernard-Henri Lévy: A Tribute to Jorge Semprun
“My father, more of a fantasist, described their meeting as a sortilege.”
“Havana Salsa tells the history of Havana, my Havana, through the sortilege of its food and the mirror of my family.”
“As early as the first edition of Lyrical Ballads, as I have suggested, Wordsworth offers examples of intersecting narrative sortilege in "We are Seven" and "Anecdote for Fathers.”
Elizabeth Bishop and the Wordsworth of _Lyrical Ballads_: Sentimentalism, Straw Men, and Misprision
“I am also known as Tajekafen ben-Arubar, Associate of the Faith Necromantic, Anointed Assistant Alchemical, Odosa -- officially designated ordained sortilege affiliate.”
“Ginny interrupted a few times and spoke directly -- for instance, when a sortilege revealed that Val should toss away the piece of meteor.”
“I want to see some serious sortilege, not listen to a concert!”
“Then he had recourse to sortilege, and cast lots to decide the matter.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sortilege’.
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phrontistery-s
from phrontistery.info
syzygy, systyle, systematology, systatic, syssitia, syrtic, systaltic, syrt, syrinx, syphilomania, syphilology, syntrierarch and 1593 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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Sound Sex
taciturn, deflower, recursive, parapraxis, comitative, atelic, awkward, eccentric, libidinous, astereognosis, aloof, moonglade and 50 more...
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hildjj's Words
bookmarklet, demisemiquaver, zeitgeist, hermeneutics, oligarch, quisling, absinthe, mellifluent, verisimilitude, implacable, necrotic, nacreous and 243 more...
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Chennessy's Words
philistine, messianic, dyad, cult, bourgeois, blot, ploy, polyglot, lingua franca, cumbersome, lumber, petit-bourgeois and 446 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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wanderstar's Words
superlative, mulish, mumps, catatonic, aquiline, clandestine, phantasmagoria, chryselephantine, microfiche, mutineer, reprobate, ruthless and 312 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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words of collect
A Heidegger Collection - a log of logues
leech, lectern, lection, lecture, legend, legible, legion, lesson, coil, collect, diligent, elect and 123 more...
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use•ful
palmary, glossolalia, bothum, high-proof, synesthesia, odious, autochthonous, yawp, mordacious, dynamo, dishevel, titely and 414 more...
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1408 more...
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Summer 12
accoast, agog, alarums, alembic, anapest, animadvert, anoraked, apostasy, aquarelle, argentated, aubergine, auscultation and 197 more...
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Divine!
Other comparable lists on wordie include Papageno's It's Magic! and colleen's taking the auspices
catoptromancy, axinomancy, brontomancy, dririmancy, spatulamancy, scapulomancy, armomancy, spatilomancy, bibliomancy, stichomancy, sortilege, graptomancy and 25 more...
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apopheniac's Words
empyrean, factitious, bedizened, bafflegab, auxetic, cucurbitaceous, tergiversate, apopheniac, picayune, refractory, supine, indite and 70 more...
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jaime_d's Words
carom, abreactive, ukase, parturition, collodion, pergola, marquetry, boule, buer, boskage, jerry, polony and 18 more...
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Sacred & Superstitious Philosophical ...
Religious, philosophical, supernatural terms and words.
san graal, occult, sangraal, deicide, deipotent, demonarchy, demonosopher, deodate, peri, rewilding, tzitzimime, metapsychic and 31 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sortilege.
yarb It was with a sort of apprehension that Renouard looked forward to seeing Miss Moorsom. And strangely enough it resembled the state of mind of a man who fears disenchantment more than sortilege.
- Conrad, The Planter of Malata Mar 5, 2009