séance

See also: seance and Séance

English

Alternative forms

• seance

Etymology

From French séance (“sitting, session”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈseɪˌɑns/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

séance (plural séances)

1. A ceremony where people try to communicate with the spirits of dead people, usually led by a medium.
   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 231:

     [B]ut only too often séances degenerate into pure sorcery or necromancy, attracting all kinds of undeveloped and earth-bound entities.

2. (dated) The sitting of an assembly to discuss a matter.

Translations

a ceremony where people try to communicate with the spirits

• Albanian: seancë spiritizmi f
• Bulgarian: сеанс (bg) m (seans)
• Chinese: 降神会 (jiàngshén huì)
• Dutch: seance (nl) m or f
• Finnish: spiritismi-istunto
• French: séance de spiritisme (fr) f
• German: Séance (de) f
• Hebrew: העלאה באוב f
• Hindi: सेआंस (seāns), दावत (hi) (dāvat), हाज़िरात (hāzirāt)
• Hungarian: szeánsz (hu)
• Icelandic: miðilsfundur m
• Italian: seduta spiritica f
• Japanese: 神降ろし (kami oroshi)
• Maori: kauwhata
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: seanse m

• Polish: seans (pl) m
• Portuguese: sessão espírita f
• Russian: сеа́нс (ru) m (seáns), спирити́ческий сеа́нс m (spiritíčeskij seáns)
• Spanish: sesión espiritista f
• Swedish: seans (sv) c
• Turkish: seans (tr)
• Yiddish: אוב (ub)

Verb

séance (third-person singular simple present séances, present participle séancing, simple past and past participle séanced)

1. To hold a séance (communication with spirits).

Anagrams

• Neaces, Seneca, acenes, censae, encase, scenae, scæne

French

Etymology

From séant +‎ -ance, possibly corresponding to Latin sedentia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /se.ɑ̃s/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Homophone: séances
• Hyphenation: sé‧ance
• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

Noun

séance f (plural séances)

1. session

Derived terms

• préséance
• séance tenante

Descendants

• → English: séance
• → German: Séance
• → Hungarian: szeánsz
• → Norwegian Bokmål: seanse
• → Polish: seans
• → Russian: сеанс (seans)
• → Turkish: seans

Further reading

• “séance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.