sortilege
Definition
- Noun:
- Divination by casting lots: "sortilege" refers to the practice of foretelling the future or making decisions by drawing or casting lots, such as sticks, stones, or cards.
- Sorcery or witchcraft: In a broader sense, "sortilege" can also mean the use of magical spells or charms, especially those involving chance or random selection.
Usage Examples
- (Divination by casting lots.)
- (A magical or divinatory practice.)
- (Sorcery involving lots.)
Advanced Usage
"to practice sortilege": to engage in divination by lots.
- The oracle was known to practice sortilege with a set of sacred stones. (She used random selection to give prophecies.)
"sortilege as a ritual": a formalized method of seeking guidance.
- Sortilege was performed with great ceremony before the battle. (The casting of lots was a serious ritual.)
Variants and Related Words
Sortileger (n): a person who practices sortilege.
- The sortileger interpreted the pattern of the fallen sticks. (A diviner who uses lots.)
Sortilegic (adj): relating to or characteristic of sortilege.
- The sortilegic ceremony involved chanting and the throwing of bones. (Pertaining to divination by lots.)
Synonyms
- Divination: the practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by supernatural means.
- Cleromancy: specifically, divination by casting lots (a synonym for sortilege).
- Sorcery: the use of magic, especially black magic.
Phrasal Verbs
- (None specific to "sortilege"; the word is not commonly used in phrasal verb constructions.)
Related Idioms
Cast lots: to make a decision or prediction by random selection, often used as a synonym for sortilege.
- They cast lots to choose the leader, a form of sortilege. (They used random selection.)
Throw the dice: a modern equivalent of sortilege, involving chance.
- In ancient times, sortilege was like throwing the dice for divine guidance. (A comparison to random chance.)