prognostication

American  

[prog-nos-ti-key-shuhn] / prɒgˌnɒs tɪˈkeɪ ʃən /

noun

1. the act of prognosticating.

2. a forecast or prediction.

---

Etymology

Origin of prognostication

1350–1400; Middle English pronosticacion < Medieval Latin prognōsticātiōn- (stem of prognōsticātiō ). See prognosticate, -ion

Explanation

A prognostication is a prediction about the future. If you make gloomy prognostications about how much traffic there will be on the way home, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find the drive fast and easy. Use the noun prognostication when someone's making a forecast or a guess about upcoming events. Your prognostication about whether or not it will rain tomorrow might lead to your family's picnic being cancelled. Another way to use the word is to mean a sign or portent: "I hope that black cat isn't a prognostication of bad luck!" The Latin root, prognostica, means "sign to forecast weather," and it comes from the Greek prognostikos, "foreknowing."

Example Sentences

Prognostication is an especially difficult art when it comes to this war.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 24, 2022

In 1576, a few years before Bruno’s Oxford lecture, Digges had published a sixth edition of his father Leonard’s perpetual almanac, A Prognostication Everlasting.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Few copies of the Prognostication, in any of its editions, survive.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

It was a new and greatly revised edition of his father’s first book now titled Prognostication Everlasting, and it included a detailed discussion of the Copernican model of the Universe—the first such description in English.

From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin

The 1576 edition of the Prognostication is a little puzzle in which we find the whole problem of the early modern history of science in miniature.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Related Words

• forecasting
• prognosis
• prophecy