as in diviner
one who predicts future events or developments
a soothsayer predicted that I would meet the man of my dreams online, assuming of course that I became a subscriber to the Web site's dating service
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Recent Examples of soothsayer
Dating back to classical antiquity, the idea that a soothsayer can tell something about a person’s health, disposition, or destiny from the lines on their palm has long fascinated seers and scientists alike.
—
The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 30 Oct. 2024
Artists are soothsayers, time travelers, and conjurers.
—Chadd Scott, Forbes, 14 Sep. 2024
Whether on Instagram or CNN, analysts (professional and self-appointed) behave like modern-day soothsayers, peering at the tea leaves of polls, social media, video clips and the general zeitgeist to utter words of prophecy and, increasingly, doom.
—Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, 5 July 2024
Fanon persists in the activist imagination as a kind of radical soothsayer, an intellectual who can speak authoritatively about our moment because of his identity as a Black man and colonial subject who personally experienced the barbarity of a colonizing power.
—Vulture Editors, Vulture, 4 June 2024
See All Example Sentences for soothsayer
The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 30 Oct. 2024
Artists are soothsayers, time travelers, and conjurers.
—Chadd Scott, Forbes, 14 Sep. 2024
Whether on Instagram or CNN, analysts (professional and self-appointed) behave like modern-day soothsayers, peering at the tea leaves of polls, social media, video clips and the general zeitgeist to utter words of prophecy and, increasingly, doom.
—Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, 5 July 2024
Fanon persists in the activist imagination as a kind of radical soothsayer, an intellectual who can speak authoritatively about our moment because of his identity as a Black man and colonial subject who personally experienced the barbarity of a colonizing power.
—Vulture Editors, Vulture, 4 June 2024
See All Example Sentences for soothsayer
Recent Examples of Synonyms for soothsayer
Noun
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The diviner and client must resolve the ambiguity or decide that in this case, the spider wasn’t saying anything at all.—
Michelle Aroney and David Zeitlyn,
Smithsonian Magazine,
2 Jan. 2025
-
The diviner then asks a question in a yes-or-no format while tapping the enclosure to encourage the spider or crab to emerge.—
Michelle Aroney and David Zeitlyn,
Smithsonian Magazine,
2 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Being wrong puts off neither prophets nor their followers.—
Arthur Krystal,
The New Yorker,
27 Jan. 2025
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Each foot represents a year in the life of Joseph Smith Jr., the progenitor, prophet and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who was born on that humble spot on December 23, 1805.—
Eli Wizevich,
Smithsonian Magazine,
23 Dec. 2024
Noun
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Sherman has been the sibyl of such proliferating confusions, toying with representation’s integrity and the boundaries of identity for more than four decades.—
Nancy Princenthal,
New York Times,
24 Jan. 2024
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In the left panel, van Eyck depicts separate moments in a narrative that leads our eyes in a snaking line from the foreground figures of Mary and John the Evangelist, past Mary Magdalene and a prophesying sibyl, then up to the soldiers and horsemen crowding around the cross.—
Sebastian Smee,
Washington Post,
14 Oct. 2020
Cite this Entry
“Soothsayer.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/soothsayer. Accessed 9 Mar. 2025.
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