Psychic Meaning
/ˈsaɪkɪk/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA person who possesses, or appears to possess, extra-sensory abilities such as precognition, clairvoyance, and telepathy, or who appears to be susceptible to paranormal or supernatural influences.
nounA person who possesses, or appears to possess, extra-sensory abilities such as clairvoyance, precognition, and telepathy, or who appears to be susceptible to paranormal or supernatural influences.
Sentence Examples
He should be a psychic detective.
Maybe in a different universe, the emotional and psychic environment is even different from ours.
My mother's psychic friend has predicted we will have triplets.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ claimed she could read people's minds and predict the future.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The performer claimed to have ____ abilities and offered to communicate with deceased relatives.
Word Origin & History
From Ancient Greek ψυχικός (psukhikós, “relative to the soul, spirit, mind”). Earlier referred to as "psychical"; or from Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ, “soul, mind, psyche”). First appeared (as substantive) 1871 and first records 1895.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Having exhausted the sporting adventures of this terrestrial globe, he is now turning to those of the dim, dark and dubious regions of psychic research."
— 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
"In the following pages I shall demonstrate that there is a psychological technique which makes it possible to interpret dreams, and that on the application of this technique every dream will reveal itself as a psychological structure, full of significance, and one which may be assigned to a specific place in the psychic activities of the waking state."
— 1913, Abraham Brill, transl., The Interpretation of Dreams, translation of original by Sigmund Freud:
"A pathological process called 'psychiatrosis' may well be found, by the same methods, to be a delineable entity, with somatic correlates, and psychic mechanisms […]"
— 1967, R. D. Laing, The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise:
"Merely by comprehending this, the lack of support that black feminists have for being black feminists, white women might be able to give at least psychic and preferably practical support to black women who they know and not assume that it means the same thing for us to be feminists and lesbians as it does for them to be feminists and lesbians."
— 1979 August 25, Barbara Smith, “Black Feminists”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 6, page 4:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ claimed she could read people's minds and predict the future.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The performer claimed to have ____ abilities and offered to communicate with deceased relatives.