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.
a meeting at which spiritualists attempt to receive messages from the spirits of the dead
a meeting of a society
See resume 2.
1795–1805; < French: session, equivalent to sé-, base of seoir to sit 1 (< Latin sedēre ) + -ance -ance
A seance is a kind of magical ritual that involves summoning ghosts or spirits of people who have died. You and your friends might have a seance in an attempt to speak to Amelia Earhart. Someone who believes in spirits that linger even after people's physical bodies are gone may also be enthusiastic about seances. A typical seance involves a group of people sitting around a table, sometimes including a medium who claims an ability to communicate with spirits and relay messages to their loved ones. In French, séance means "a sitting," and it's often simply used to mean "a session," like une séance de cinéma, "a movie session."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Welcome to “Phasmagorica,” what composer-turned-magician-turned-spiritual explorer BC Smith describes as “a séance reimagined as art.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2025
A stray orange cat; a séance in a hostel; a “nearsighted galoot” who decodes cryptic messages from Radio Pyongyang; flashlights that aren’t just flashlights — these bread crumbs guide us to the novel’s denouement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2025
The segment covers story themes, character motivations, casting, period costuming, shooting in Venice, the non-rehearsed séance scene and Mr. Branagh’s multifunctional role in the film.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 7, 2023
No, there is no séance with the supernatural nor summoning of spirits, just a jangle of regrets.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 23, 2023
Of the twenty other people at Edmonds’s séance, an unnamed man wrote about his experience as an attendee that same night.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
An hour into “Sinners” comes a risky scene that could have derailed Ryan Coogler’s hit vampire movie: a juke-joint seance that involves a hip-hop DJ, a breakdancer, a Funkadelic-esque guitarist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 26, 2025
The dialogue between Satie’s music and Clair’s film packed the uncanny thrill of a seance, not least of all because at one point Börlin comes back from the dead.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 10, 2022
"It definitely took on elements of being like a seance," said Dominik, who spent more than a decade trying to bring the book of the same name by Joyce Carol Oatesby to the screen.
From Reuters ● Sep. 8, 2022
The journalist also recruited paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren to help her perform a seance at the site.
From Fox News ● Oct. 15, 2021
His skin was the color of teakwood, dark and glistening like Queen Marie’s old seance table.
From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan
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.
