Meaning & use
clairvoyant
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Meanings
nouncountable
A person who claims to see events or information beyond normal senses, often about the future.
Grammar: Countable; use 'a clairvoyant' for one person and 'clairvoyants' for more than one.
Patterns
- a clairvoyant who does something
- consult a clairvoyant
She visited a clairvoyant to ask about her missing brother.
The clairvoyant told him he would move abroad within a year.
Many people are skeptical of clairvoyants who charge high fees.
adjectivecomparable
Having or showing the claimed ability to know things beyond normal perception.
Grammar: Gradable adjective; can be used before a noun or after a linking verb like 'be' or 'seem'.
Patterns
- be clairvoyant
- a clairvoyant experience
He seemed almost clairvoyant, guessing exactly what she would say.
Her clairvoyant dreams were the subject of much family debate.
Word forms
| plural | clairvoyants |
|---|
Common combinations
- a gifted clairvoyant
- The village considered her a gifted clairvoyant.
- consult a clairvoyant
- He decided to consult a clairvoyant about his career.
- claims to be clairvoyant
- The witness claims to be clairvoyant.
- a clairvoyant vision
- She described a clairvoyant vision of a house by the sea.
Synonyms and how they differ
- psychic
- Broader and more common; a psychic may sense things through touch or objects, while a clairvoyant specifically claims to 'see' distant or hidden things.
- fortune-teller
- Focuses on predicting a client's future, often for money, rather than on any claimed extrasensory perception.
- seer
- A more literary or old-fashioned word for someone who sees the future, often in religious or poetic contexts.
Word family
- clairvoyance noun
- The claimed ability to see things beyond normal perception.
Commonly confused: clairvoyant or voyeur?
clairvoyant vs voyeur
Sounds vaguely similar but means a person who secretly watches others for sexual pleasure — a completely different and negative idea.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'clairvoyant' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Clairvoyant' as a noun means a person who claims to see hidden or future events, so predicting a match result fits. Option 2 confuses it with a physical object, option 3 invents a verb, and option 4 wrongly treats it as a vehicle.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “clairvoyant”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.