prophecy
/ˈpɹɑfɪsi/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.71 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A prediction, especially one made by a prophet or under divine inspiration.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "French writer Nostradamus made a prophecy in his book."
- "But Nature, prevoyant, tingled into his heart an inarticulate thrill of prophecy."
- "It is recorded that this remarkable prophecy, now largely fulfilled, was received with much merriment—an undeserved fate."
- "Flatterers were indeed beginning to wonder whether Edward I was not a new Arthur in the mould of Merlinic prophecies."
- "[…] think of the kind pains you took to reason and persuade me out of my fears, convince me that I should like it after a little while, and feel how right you proved to be, I am inclined to hope you may always prophecy as well."
- "The manipulation of these tremendous beneficent energies helped the world so well that the vast majority of these prophecied catastrophies did not happen."
Etymology
From Middle English prophecie, from Old French prophetie, from Latin prophētīa, from Ancient Greek προφητεία (prophēteía, “prophecy”), from προφήτης (prophḗtēs, “speaker of a god”), from πρό (pró, “before”) + φημί (phēmí, “to tell”). Displaced native Old English wītgung. Doublet of prophesy.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *per-, prophecie, prophetie, prophētīa, προφητεία
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpɹɑfɪsi/
- British English: /ˈpɹɒfɪsi/