Dictionary Definition
clairvoyant adj
1 perceiving things beyond the natural range of
the senses
2 foreseeing the future [syn: precognitive, second-sighted]
n : someone who has the power of clairvoyance
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Adjective
Translations
of, or relating to clairvoyance
- German: hellseherisch
able to see things that cannot be perceived by
the normal senses
- German: hellsichtig
able to foresee the future
- German: hellsichtig, präkognitiv
Translations
someone with this power
- Czech: jasnovidec
- Finnish: ennustaja, selvänäkijä
- German: Hellseher , Hellseherin
- Italian: chiaroveggente m|f
See also
Extensive Definition
Clairvoyance (from 17th century French
with clair meaning "clear" and voyance meaning "visibility") is the
purported ability to gain information about an object, location or
physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory
perception. A person said to have the ability of clairvoyance
is referred to as a clairvoyant ("one who sees clear").
Claims for the existence of paranormal psychic abilities such as
clairvoyance are highly controversial. Parapsychology
explores this possibility, but no evidence for such paranormal
phenomena is accepted by the scientific
community.
Usage
Within parapsychology,
clairvoyance is used exclusively to refer to the transfer of
information that is both contemporary to, and hidden from, the
clairvoyant. It is differentiated from telepathy in that the
information is said to be gained directly from an external physical
source, rather than being transferred from the mind of one
individual to another.
Outside of parapsychology, clairvoyance is often
used to refer to other forms of Anomalous
cognition, most commonly the perception of events that have
occurred in the past, or which will occur in the future (known as
retrocognition
and precognition
respectively), There is also a measured level of belief from
amongst the general public, with the portion of the US population
who believe in clairvoyance varying between 1/4 and 1/3 over the 15
year period from 1990 to 2005. (Of course, belief of the general
public in the existence of a phenomenon does not mean that it
exists in nature.)
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
anticipant, anticipatory, automatist, clairaudient, clairsentient, divinatory, extrasensory, farseeing, farsighted, feeling, forehanded, foreknowing, foreseeing, foresighted, forethoughted, forethoughtful, intuitional, intuitive, longsighted, mediumistic, precognitive, precognizant, prepared, prescient, pretersensual, provident, providential, prudent, psychic, psychokinetic, psychometer, psychometrist, psychosensory, ready, sagacious, second-sighted,
sensing, spiritual, spiritualistic, supersensible, supersensual, telekinetic, telepathic