seer

[ see-er for 1; seer for 2-4 ]

/ ˈsi ər for 1; sɪər for 2-4 /

Save This Word!

noun

a person who sees; observer.

a person who prophesies future events; prophet: Industry seers predicted higher profits.

a person endowed with profound moral and spiritual insight or knowledge; a wise person or sage who possesses intuitive powers.

a person who is reputed to have special powers of divination, as a crystal gazer or palmist.

OTHER WORDS FOR seer

2 oracle, soothsayer, augur.

See synonyms for seer on Thesaurus.com

QUIZ

WILL YOU SAIL OR STUMBLE ON THESE GRAMMAR QUESTIONS?

Smoothly step over to these common grammar mistakes that trip many people up. Good luck!

Question 1 of 7

Fill in the blank: I can’t figure out _____ gave me this gift.

who

whom

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of seer

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at see¹, -er¹

Words nearby seer

see over, seep, seepage, seepage pit, seepy, seer, see reason, see red, seeress, seersucker, seesaw

Other definitions for seer (2 of 2)

seer²

[ seer, sair ]

/ sɪər, sɛər /

noun

ser.

Origin of seer

First recorded in 1610–20

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

How to use seer in a sentence

To romanticize them as seers — as when, for instance, we praise Picasso's portrait of Gertrude Stein for supposedly anticipating how Stein would age — is to misunderstand their role.
Nam June Paik predicted the Internet, YouTube and Instagram. But he was more interesting as an artist than as a prophet.|Sebastian Smee|July 30, 2021|Washington Post
Bob Dylan makes the theory of relativity worth caring about at all: he is a seer.
Bob Dylan: Why We Can Never Know Him|Elizabeth Wurtzel|November 9, 2013|DAILY BEAST
I especially love the relationship between the girl narrator, Abilene Tucker, and Miss Sadie, the wise older seer of Manifest.
Emily Bazelon’s Book Bag: The Essential Bildungsromans|Emily Bazelon|February 26, 2013|DAILY BEAST
The Amazing Kreskin, venerable showbiz seer, says he can discern who is telling the truth: Cain or his accusers.
The Amazing Kreskin's Herman Cain Stunt|Lloyd Grove|November 17, 2011|DAILY BEAST

Gilliatt, who was a kind of seer amid the secrets of nature, stood there musing, and sensible of confused emotions.
Toilers of the Sea|Victor Hugo
Without exaggeration, he manages to suggest the intervening aerial medium between the seer and the thing seen.
Historic Fredericksburg|John T. Goolrick
The Kaiser has those terrible haunted eyes that have marked the seer's presentment of him from quite an early stage of the war.
Raemaekers' Cartoons|Louis Raemaekers
A seer is one who has seeing eyes which clearly note and comprehend what most people pass a hundred times nor care to see.
Heroes of To-Day|Mary R. Parkman
A mysterious lucidity of mind results, which converts the student into the seer, and the poet into a prophet.
Islam Her Moral And Spiritual Value|Arthur Glyn Leonard

British Dictionary definitions for seer (1 of 2)

seer¹

/ (sɪə) /

noun

a person who can supposedly see into the future; prophet

a person who professes supernatural powers

a person who sees

Derived forms of seer

seeress, fem n

British Dictionary definitions for seer (2 of 2)

seer²

/ (sɪə) /

noun

a variant spelling of ser

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

seer

OTHER WORDS FOR seer

Origin of seer

Words nearby seer

Other definitions for seer (2 of 2)

Origin of seer

Words related to seer

How to use seer in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for seer (1 of 2)

Derived forms of seer

British Dictionary definitions for seer (2 of 2)