Word.ws English Dictionary

hydatoscopy

hydatoscopy noun: divination by interpreting rainwater. Omens are drawn from the various formations and sizes of rain puddles, and bowls of rainwater are gazed upon until clairvoyant visions appear on the surface of the water, or in the mind's eye. This is considered in some cases to be more important than hydromancy because rain has fallen from the heavens, making it sacred.

Noun

hydatoscopy (uncountable)

  1. (rare) Divination by interpreting rainwater. Omens are drawn from the various formations and sizes of rain puddles, and bowls of rainwater are gazed upon until clairvoyant visions appear on the surface of the water, or in the mind's eye. This is considered in some cases to be more important than hydromancy because rain has fallen from the heavens, making it sacred.

Origin of hydatoscopy

From hydato- + -scopy. Hydat- is the stem of Ancient Greek ὕδωρ (húdōr, “water”), whence also hydro-.

Questions about hydatoscopy

What does hydatoscopy mean?
Hydatoscopy means divination by interpreting rainwater. Omens are drawn from the various formations and sizes of rain puddles, and bowls of rainwater are gazed upon until clairvoyant visions appear on the surface of the water, or in the mind's eye. This is considered in some cases to be more important than hydromancy because rain has fallen from the heavens, making it sacred.
What part of speech is hydatoscopy?
Hydatoscopy is a noun.

Words near hydatoscopy in the dictionary

  1. hydatinids
  2. hydatism
  3. hydatoid
  4. hydatophyte
  5. hydatophytes
  6. hydatoscopy
  7. hydaturia
  8. hydden
  9. hyde
  10. Hyde County
  11. Hyde Heath

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hydatoscopy (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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Cite this entry: “hydatoscopy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hydatoscopy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.