Dictionary Definition

prognosticate

1 make a prediction about; tell in advance; "Call the outcome of an election" [syn: predict, foretell, call, forebode, anticipate, promise]

User Contributed Dictionary

From Old Italian prognosticare, from Latin prognosticum (-con), from Ancient Greek προγνωστικόν (prognostikon), neutral of προγνωστικός (prognostikos) "foreknowing, prescient, prognostic", from prefix πρό- (pro-) + γνωστικός (gnostikos) "of or for knowing, good at knowing", from γιγνώσκω (gignosko) "to learn to know, to perceive, to mark, to learn".

To predict or forecast, especially through the application of skill.

Examining the tea-leaves, she prognosticated dark days ahead.
To presage, betoken.

The bluebells may prognosticate an early spring this year.

1598 — William Shakespeare, Sonnet xiv

But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,And constant stars in them I read such artAs 'Truth and beauty shall together thrive,If from thyself, to store thou wouldst convert';Or else of thee this I prognosticate:'Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.'
1847 — Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights ch. 7

...to-morrow I intend lengthening the night till afternoon. I prognosticate for myself an obstinate cold, at least.

predict, foretell

betoken

Prognosis is a doctor's prediction about a disease.

Prognosis may also refer to:

Prediction, a statement or claim that a particular event will occur in the future
Prognostics, an engineering discipline focused on predicting the future condition or estimating remaining useful life of a component and/or system of components
Precognition, the psychic ability to perceive information about future places or events before they happen
Fortune-telling, predicting the future, usually of an individual
Divination, the practice of ascertaining information from supernatural sources

adumbrate, announce, augur, bet, betoken, cast a horoscope, cast a nativity, divine, dope, dope out, dowse for water, forebode, forecast, foresee, foreshadow, foretell, foretoken, fortune-tell, gamble, guess, harbinger, hariolate, herald, make a prediction, make a prognosis, make a prophecy, make book, portend, predict, prefigure, presage, prophesy, read palms, read tea leaves, read the future, risk, signal, soothsay, speculate, take a chance, tell fortunes, tell the future, vaticinate