séance

[ sey-ahns ]

/ ˈseɪ ɑns /

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See synonyms for séance on Thesaurus.com

noun

a meeting in which a spiritualist attempts to communicate with the spirits of the dead.

a session or sitting, as of a class or organization.

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Origin of séance

1795–1805; <French: session, equivalent to sé-, base of seoir to sit¹ (<Latin sedēre) + -ance-ance

usage note for séance

See resume².

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH séance

science, séance

Words nearby séance

seamstress, seamy, seamy side, Sean, Seanad Éireann, séance, sea nettle, sea oats, Sea of Tranquility, sea onion, sea otter

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use séance in a sentence

At each séance, more and more men pressed eagerly round the table.
How Two WWI POWs Conned Their Way Out With a Ouija Board|Margalit Fox|May 31, 2021|The Daily Beast
By the fourth night, one of them was awarded a paranormal license for maxing out their Medium skill after several séances.
I recreated ‘Phasmophobia’ in ‘The Sims 4’ with the game’s new paranormal pack|Elise Favis|January 26, 2021|Washington Post
You would see it small, shrunken, dropped together, just like the body of a materialising medium at a seance.
Three More John Silence Stories|Algernon Blackwood
Margaret Halley stared reflectively at the blotting-pad for a moment, and then described a typical seance at Kazmah's.
Dope|Sax Rohmer

When Old Stone Face had been staring at them during the seance—seance?
Sense from Thought Divide|Mark Irvin Clifton
This was all carried out preliminary to a seance, and a final examination of the room was made.
Psychic Phenomena|Edward T. Bennett
Immediately on beginning the seance the young girl was taken possession of by an entity claiming to be Turner.
Elementary Theosophy|L. W. Rogers

British Dictionary definitions for séance

seance

sance

/ (ˈseɪɑ̃ns, -ɑːns) /

noun

a meeting at which spiritualists attempt to receive messages from the spirits of the dead

a meeting of a society

Word Origin for seance

C19: from French, literally: a sitting, from Old French seoir to sit, from Latin sedēre

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012