Word.ws English Dictionary

rhabdomancy

UK/ˈɹæb.dəˌmæn.si/

rhabdomancy noun: divination with wands or rods, especially to use a divining rod to find things below the ground.

rhabdomancy: divination with wands or rods, especially to use a divining rod to find things below the ground
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Noun

rhabdomancy (uncountable)

  1. Divination with wands or rods, especially to use a divining rod to find things below the ground.
    • This question of buried treasure exercised the minds of ancient occultists considerably, and in connection with it there was frequently employed the art of Rhabdomancy, which was similar to that of water divining or water "dousing".1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 145
    Synonyms:
    dowsing

Synonyms of rhabdomancy

Origin of rhabdomancy

From rhabdo- + -mancy, first attested in 1646. From Latin rhabdomantīa, from Ancient Greek ῥαβδομαντεία (rhabdomanteía), from ῥάβδος (rhábdos, “rod”) + μαντεία (manteía, “divination”).

Questions about rhabdomancy

What does rhabdomancy mean?
Rhabdomancy means divination with wands or rods, especially to use a divining rod to find things below the ground.
What part of speech is rhabdomancy?
Rhabdomancy is a noun.
How do you pronounce rhabdomancy?
Rhabdomancy is pronounced /ˈɹæb.dəˌmæn.si/ (UK).

Words near rhabdomancy in the dictionary

  1. rhabdology
  2. rhabdom
  3. rhabdomal
  4. rhabdomancer
  5. rhabdomancers
  6. rhabdomancy
  7. rhabdomantic
  8. rhabdomantist
  9. rhabdomantists
  10. rhabdome
  11. rhabdomeral

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rhabdomancy (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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