🧠 About the mind 🔮 Mind-reading tricks

mentalistic

9.1

Relating to shows that seem to read minds by using tricks and observation

adjective
/ˌmɛn.təˈlɪs.tɪk/

: mentalista

Many mentalistic performances rely on clever observation and psychological techniques.

Examples

She developed a mentalistic routine that involved predicting numbers chosen by volunteers.
The magician's mentalistic tricks left the audience wondering if he could really read minds.
The magician's mentalistic tricks amazed the audience.
Can you explain the mentalistic techniques used in the show?
The magician's mentalistic performance made the audience believe he could read their thoughts.
In her act, she used mentalistic methods to give the impression of predicting the future.
His mentalistic ability to guess answers amazed everyone at the party.

Synonyms

psychic

vsmentalistic

21 7.6

About the mind and a person's feelings and thoughts

focuses on performed tricks that imitate mind reading for audiences

illusionistic

vsmentalistic

1 8.4

That makes something look real or three-dimensional when it is not

focuses on staged acts that pretend to read minds for an audience

How Performative

mentalistic

9.1

performatory

1 7.9

theatrical

90 4.8

illustrative

15 4.6

explanatory

26 3.8

Surface Forms

mentalistic positive

Morphology

mentalistic = mentalism (semi-transparent) = mental + istic

Formally derived from the lexical field 'mentalism' + '-istic', but the sense referring to the specialized performance art is narrower than the general meaning 'relating to the mind'.

Etymology

The word mentalistic comes from mental ('mind') and the ending -istic meaning 'related to', so it literally means 'about the mind'. In performance, a mentalistic trick is one that looks like 'mind-reading' because it works with thoughts and suggestion rather than with visible action.