palmistry
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of palmistry
1375–1425; late Middle English pawmestry, equivalent to pawm palm 1 + -estry (origin obscure; cf. -y 3)
Explanation
A fortune teller who looks closely at the lines on your palm and predicts your future practices palmistry. Palmistry is also called "palm reading." If you decide to master the art of palmistry, you'll learn about certain palm lines like the "life line" and the "heart line," which run through the middle of your palm, as well as subtler creases like "union lines," said to predict romantic relationships. The idea that palmistry can predict the future or reveal secrets about your character are ancient but unproven — most people consider it a pseudoscience, or an unscientific belief.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
His now-defunct TikTok account, which has more than 300,000 followers, claims to make predictions based on astrology and palmistry.
From BBC • Apr. 25, 2025
She consulted readers and priestesses in New Orleans and, after a bad breakup, received palmistry from a reader in Brooklyn.
From The New Yorker • May 27, 2017
The name came from a random page in a Victorian book of palmistry.
From New York Times • Jun. 23, 2016
As night descends you’ll watch a palmistry of cities come to glowing life on the darkness below, and you’ll wonder, too, about the rare lights of the empty places.
From Slate • May 31, 2016
At the closing banquet someone mentioned to Mikhail Tal that Bobby, who’d been studying palmistry, was reading the palms of other players, almost as a parlor game.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
