haruspicy
/həˈɹʌspɪsi/
haruspicy noun: divination by use of animal entrails, usually the victims of sacrifice.
Noun
haruspicy (countable and uncountable, plural haruspicies)
- Divination by use of animal entrails, usually the victims of sacrifice.
- Different kinds of divination, which have passed for sciences, we have had: […] 6. Haruspicy, by inspecting the bowels of animals. […]1807, Charles Buck, A Theological Dictionary, Volume 1, Whitehall, page 238
- That our fates should be made dependent upon the stars, planets, and constellations, however preposterous a conceit, at least imparts a dignity to our nature by conjoining earth with Heaven: but that the doom of kings, empires, and individuals, should be regulated […] by the entrails of victims, as...1825, Horace Smith, Gaieties and Gravities: A Series of Essays, Comic Tales, and Fugitive Vagaries, Volume II, H. Colburn, page 333
- Synonyms:
- extispicy
Synonyms of haruspicy
Forms of haruspicy
| plural | haruspicies |
|---|---|
| alternative form | aruspicy |
Origin of haruspicy
From Latin haruspicium, from haruspex (“diviner of entrails”) + -ium (forming abstract nouns).
Questions about haruspicy
- What does haruspicy mean?
- Haruspicy means divination by use of animal entrails, usually the victims of sacrifice.
- What part of speech is haruspicy?
- Haruspicy is a noun.
- How do you pronounce haruspicy?
- Haruspicy is pronounced /həˈɹʌspɪsi/.
- What is the plural of haruspicy?
- The plural of haruspicy is haruspicies.
Words near haruspicy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: haruspicy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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