telepathy means the capability to communicate directly by psychic means; the sympathetic affection of one mind by the thoughts, feelings, or emotions of another at a distance, without communication through the ordinary channels of sensation. It carries an Arena rating of 1485, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, telepathy ranks #1,386 of 25,264 for Qualifying, #2,319 of 14,444 for Most Exacting Words, #2,382 of 14,297 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #7,082 of 14,423 for Most Sublime Words.
telepathy is pronounced /tɛˈlɛp.ə.θi/.
Why “telepathy” is a great word
The supposed communication of thoughts or feelings directly from one mind to another without the use of known sensory channels. From the combining form tele- (from Greek tēle-, meaning "far off, distant") and -pathy (from Greek -patheia, meaning "feeling, suffering"), coined in 1882 by English psychologist Frederic W. H. Myers. Unlike clairvoyance, which purports to perceive distant events, or empathy, which is a psychological understanding of another's state, telepathy implies a direct, untethered transmission of the mind's contents. It is the sudden, unbidden image of a forgotten memory that arrives just as a friend describes it, the silent flinch at a phantom pain miles away, or the shared, unspoken dread that fills a room before the bad news is spoken—the profound and lonely hope that our most private selves might, after all, be reachable.
Etymology
From tele- + -pathy.
noun
- The capability to communicate directly by psychic means; the sympathetic affection of one mind by the thoughts, feelings, or emotions of another at a distance, without communication through the ordinary channels of sensation.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- clairsentience 88% match — The psychic ability for a person to acquire knowledge by means of feeling. vs telepathy →
- telekinesis 88% match — The ability to move objects with the power of one's mind. vs telepathy →
- telegnosis 87% match — Knowledge of events outside of normal sensory perception. vs telepathy →
- psychokinesis 86% match — The movement of physical systems and objects by the use of psychic power. Abbreviated as PK. vs telepathy →
- claircognizance 85% match — The ability for a person to acquire psychic knowledge without knowing how or why they knew it. vs telepathy →
- empath 85% match — Someone with an extraordinarily high capability of sensing the emotions of others.; Someone who does so through psychological talent or training, thus having an unusually good level of empathy. vs telepathy →
- empathy 85% match — Identification with or understanding of the thoughts, feelings, or emotional state of another person. vs telepathy →
- cardiognosticism 84% match — Mystical knowledge of, or the ability to know, a person's heart (thoughts and feelings). vs telepathy →