PROGNOSTICATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does prognosticate mean? 

• PROGNOSTICATE (verb)
  The verb PROGNOSTICATE has 2 senses:

1. make a prediction about; tell in advance

2. indicate, as with a sign or an omen

  Familiarity information: PROGNOSTICATE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PROGNOSTICATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they prognosticate    ... he / she / it prognosticates   
Past simple: prognosticated   
Past participle: prognosticated   
-ing form: prognosticating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make a prediction about; tell in advance

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

anticipate; call; forebode; foretell; predict; prognosticate; promise

Context example:

Call the outcome of an election

Hypernyms (to "prognosticate" is one way to...):

guess; hazard; pretend; venture (put forward, of a guess, in spite of possible refutation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "prognosticate"):

read (interpret the significance of, as of palms, tea leaves, intestines, the sky; also of human behavior)

outguess; second-guess (attempt to anticipate or predict)

augur (predict from an omen)

bet; wager (maintain with or as if with a bet)

calculate; forecast (predict in advance)

prophesy; vaticinate (predict or reveal through, or as if through, divine inspiration)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

prognosis (a prediction about how something (as the weather) will develop)

prognostication (knowledge of the future (usually said to be obtained from a divine source))

prognostication (a statement made about the future)

prognosticative (of or relating to prediction; having value for making predictions)

prognosticator (someone who makes predictions of the future (usually on the basis of special knowledge))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Indicate, as with a sign or an omen

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

augur; auspicate; betoken; bode; forecast; foreshadow; foretell; omen; portend; predict; prefigure; presage; prognosticate

Context example:

These signs bode bad news

Hypernyms (to "prognosticate" is one way to...):

bespeak; betoken; indicate; point; signal (be a signal for or a symptom of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "prognosticate"):

threaten (to be a menacing indication of something)

foreshow (foretell by divine inspiration)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

prognosis (a prediction about how something (as the weather) will develop)

prognostication (a sign of something about to happen)

 Context examples 

On the third day my mother sickened; her fever was accompanied by the most alarming symptoms, and the looks of her medical attendants prognosticated the worst event.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Is this to prognosticate peace, or to mock at my unhappiness?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)