cartomancy

/ ˈkɑːtəˌmænsɪ /

noun

1. the telling of fortunes with playing cards

Word History and Origins

Origin of cartomancy¹

C19: from French carte card + -mancy

Example Sentences

A rotating staff of witches and artists will do tarot readings, energy work and cartomancy, a form of divination using a deck of cards.

From Seattle Times

“I am afraid,” she went on, “that the nag — I’m sorry, the centaur — knows nothing of cartomancy. I asked him — one Seer to another — had he not, too, sensed the distant vibrations of coming catastrophe? But he seemed to find me almost comical. Yes, comical!”

From Literature

Without question, Cumming belongs here, at center stage, using cartomancy to solve crimes and chafing at feckless coroners.

From The Guardian

Game historian David Parlett has written that the classic Solitaire likely developed in the Baltic in the 18th century, possibly as a form of fortune telling, during a wave of renewed interest in tarot and cartomancy.

From Salon

The tower of Ashton Church, as Rector Fairfax knew it, was taken down and re-built in 1818, by which time all recollection of that ancient piece of cartomancy in connection with the steeple had passed out of mind.

From Project Gutenberg