planchette

American  

[plan-shet, -chet] / plænˈʃɛt, -ˈtʃɛt /

noun

1. a small, heart-shaped board supported by two casters and a pencil or stylus that, when moved across a surface by the light, unguided pressure of the fingertips, is supposed to trace meaningful patterns or written messages revealing subconscious thoughts, psychic phenomena, clairvoyant messages, etc.

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planchette British  

/ plɑːnˈʃɛt /

noun

1. a heart-shaped board on wheels, on which messages are written under supposed spirit guidance

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Etymology

Origin of planchette

From French, dating back to 1855–60; planch, -ette

Example Sentences

After asking it the standard sort of questions that we both suspected the other was moving the planchette to answer: “Does so and so like me back?”

From Salon

Like its characters crafting a planchette out of lipstick and a phone case, “Seance” mashes ideas together and hopes for the best.

From New York Times

She seems to drift, like the planchette on a Ouija board.

From New York Times

But as a teenager — bored, lonely, with a vague taste for the occult — I read tarot cards and messed around with Ouija boards, mortified when the planchette would glide toward some crush’s name.

From New York Times

But although the portentous air isn’t entirely earned, still you keep reading, half-believing that dark forces are stirring, the way you might feel a planchette sliding across a Ouija board.

From New York Times