Wiktionary
alt. The act or practise of predicting the future (especially for money), as by using a crystal ball, reading palms, reading tea leaves in a cup, etc.; prediction of future events, especially those of a personal nature. n. The act or practise of predicting the future (especially for money), as by using a crystal ball, reading palms, reading tea leaves in a cup, etc.; prediction of future events, especially those of a personal nature.
Wikipedia
Fortune-telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune-telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination. The difference is that divination is the term used for predictions considered part of a religious ritual, invoking deities or spirits, while the term fortune-telling implies a less serious or formal setting, even one of popular culture, where belief in occult workings behind the prediction is less prominent than the concept of suggestion, spiritual or practical advisory or affirmation.
Historically, fortune-telling grows out of folkloristic reception of Renaissance magic, specifically associated with Romani people. During the 19th and 20th century, methods of divination from non-Western cultures, such as the I Ching, were also adopted as methods of fortune-telling in western popular culture.
An example of divination or fortune-telling as purely an item of pop culture, with little or no vestiges of belief in the occult, would be the Magic 8-Ball sold as a toy by Mattel, or Paul II, an octopus at the Sea Life Aquarium at Oberhausen used to predict the outcome of matches played by the German national football team.
There is opposition to fortune-telling in Christianity, Islam and Judaism based on scriptural prohibitions against divination. This sometimes causes discord in the Jewish community due to their views on mysticism.
Terms for one who sees into the future include fortune-teller, crystal-gazer, spaewife, seer, soothsayer, sibyl, clairvoyant, and prophet; related terms which might include this among other abilities are oracle, augur, and visionary.
Usage examples of "fortune-telling".
I are hanging out by the backstop, playing the fortune-telling game MASH like we always do.
Dressed in a simple white tunic, she was sitting cross-legged on a cushion at the low table and frowning at her fortune-telling tiles when he came in.
I chose the ace of diamonds exactly because it represents wealth in fortune-telling, so it's a positive card that people respond well to.
Very good guide to all your basic fortune-telling methods - palmistry, crystal balls, bird entrails.
Fortune-telling was illegal in Wad-Hasa and only a lot of fast talking by both him and Dorrie had saved him from a flogging.
She worked up a line of fortune-telling maps for each sign of the zodiac.
The minted coins there had been small amounts, probably fees for fortune-telling.
It was not precisely a fortune-telling device but a theory as to ways of predicting general trends in future human history.
While there were notorious disputes in Europe as to which races and subraces were vermin, all Europeans could agree that the thieving, fortune-telling, childstealing Gypsies were the enemies of all decent humankind.