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mind reader

mind reader

16 6.3
A person who seems to know what other people are thinking, often using tricks or guessing
  • noun
  • /maɪnd ˈriːdər/
translation icon : lector de mentes
  • I'm not a mind reader, you know.
  • a kind of mind reader

Obviously you can't be a mind reader, but goodness knows that you've tried.

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Examples

Synonyms

telepath
vsmind reader
259 8.9

A person who can read and send thoughts without speaking

seems to know thoughts but may instead use tricks, intuition, or staged acts
psychic
vsmind reader
208 7.3

A person who says they can know things beyond normal senses, like predicting the future

focuses on seeming to know people's thoughts rather than broad extrasensory perception
mentalist
vsmind reader
5 8.2

A performer who seems to read people's thoughts using tricks

appears to know thoughts but may rely on performance, tricks, or showmanship instead
thought-reader
vsmind reader
9.1

A magician who seems to know what people think by using tricks

appears to know thoughts but may rely on intuition, tricks, or supposed powers
telepathist
vsmind reader
9.9

A performer who pretends to read minds by using secret signals from an accomplice

appears to know thoughts but methods may include accomplice signals, not real telepathy
mental telepathist
vsmind reader
9.9

A person who says they can share thoughts without using the senses

appears to know thoughts but may instead rely on tricks, guesses, or suggestion

How Perceptive

psychic
208 7.3
mind reader
16 6.3
observer
305 2.8

Surface Forms

mind reader singular
mind readers plural

Morphology

mind + reader

The compound 'mind reader' is directly built from 'mind' (thoughts) + 'reader' (an agent who reads), so its meaning 'someone or something that reads/predicts minds' is transparently derivable from the constituents; although metaphorical when applied to AI, the composition follows a common agent + object pattern found across languages. A B1 learner who knows 'mind' and 'reader' would readily infer the intended sense.

Etymology

Mind reader comes from the image of someone reading a mind like a book. Magicians watched small signs and seemed to 'know' what people were thinking, so a person who did this was called a mind reader.