crystal ball

/'kristlbɔ:l/

Friendly

Word: Crystal Ball

Definition: A crystal ball is a smooth, round piece of glass or crystal that is often used by fortune-tellers or psychics. They look into the crystal ball to "see" future events or gain insight into a person's life.

Usage Instructions:

• Part of Speech: Noun
• Common Context: Often used in discussions about fortune-telling, predictions, or mystical practices.

Example Sentence:

• "The fortune-teller gazed into her crystal ball and claimed to see a bright future for me."

Advanced Usage:

In a more figurative sense, "crystal ball" can refer to someone's ability to predict the future or make educated guesses about what might happen next. - Example: "Using data trends, the analysts tried to act like a crystal ball for the market's future performance."

Word Variants:

• Crystal Gazing: The practice of looking into a crystal ball to predict the future.
• Fortune-Teller: A person who claims to see the future, often using a crystal ball.

Different Meaning:

While a crystal ball primarily refers to the physical object used in fortune-telling, it can also symbolize intuition or foresight in various contexts.

Synonyms:

• Fortune-Telling Sphere: Another term that could be used, though less common.
• Divination Tool: A more general term for any tool used to predict the future.

Idioms:

• There are no specific idioms directly related to "crystal ball," but phrases like "reading the future" or "peering into the unknown" can convey a similar meaning.

Phrasal Verbs:

There are no common phrasal verbs directly associated with "crystal ball," but you might say "look into" (as in, "look into the crystal ball") when describing the action of using it.

Summary:

A crystal ball is not just a mystical object; it also represents the idea of trying to understand or predict the future.

Academic

Noun

1. a glass or crystal globe used in crystal gazing by fortunetellers