Word.ws English Dictionary

palmomancy

palmomancy noun: divination of involuntary movements of the body such as tics.

Noun

palmomancy (uncountable)

  1. Divination of involuntary movements of the body such as tics.
    • The other texts are new or unidentified: an epic fragment relating to Achilles and the ransoming of Hector, some very imperfect iambic trimeters, apparently from a comedy, scholia on an unknown poetical text, two fragments of romances, an astrological fragment, and some fragments of a book of...1921, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology
    • A more specifically divinatory approach to the human body is palmomancy, or divination from twitches and itches in various parts of the body, an ancient and apparently universal method of divination. At the level of Russian popular sayings and beliefs a large number of examples of this lore can be...1997, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal, The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 54

Examples of palmomancy in a sentence

  • A more specifically divinatory approach to the human body is palmomancy, or divination from twitches and itches in various parts of the body, an ancient and apparently universal method of divination.1997, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal, The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 54:
  • It contains Pseudo-Melampous's treatise on palmomancy, a form of divination that takes its clues from involuntary body movements.2014, AnneMarie Luijendijk, Forbidden Oracles?: The Gospel of the Lots of Mary, Mohr Siebeck, →ISBN, page 52:
  • XXXIX, 3.1), containing a treatise of palmomancy, with no clear Christian influence.2016, Alan Mugridge, Copying Early Christian Texts: A study of scribal practice, Mohr Siebeck, →ISBN, page 412:

Origin of palmomancy

From Ancient Greek παλμός (palmós, “quivering motion”) + -mancy; compare palmoscopy. By surface analysis, palmo- + -mancy.

Questions about palmomancy

What does palmomancy mean?
Palmomancy means divination of involuntary movements of the body such as tics.
How do you use palmomancy in a sentence?
A more specifically divinatory approach to the human body is palmomancy, or divination from twitches and itches in various parts of the body, an ancient and apparently universal method of divination.
What part of speech is palmomancy?
Palmomancy is a noun.

Words near palmomancy in the dictionary

  1. palmloads
  2. palmo
  3. palmo-
  4. palmolein
  5. palmoleins
  6. palmomancy
  7. palmomental
  8. palmoplantar
  9. palmopustular
  10. Palmore
  11. Palmores

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: palmomancy (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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