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tarot card

tarot card

18 7.6
A card with pictures and symbols used to tell the future or play special card games
  • noun
  • /ˈtɛrəʊ kɑrd/
translation icon : carta del tarot
  • I visited a fortune teller who used a tarot card to reveal my future.
  • tarot card reader
  • deck of tarot cards
  • tarot card reading

And so Jax is one of the tarot cards, Prince of Hearts.

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Examples

  • "I still don't know why he chose tarot cards," said Winnifred.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • I began the ritual using Mother Peace tarot cards.

    Academic text (2001)
  • I came for the tarot cards.

  • Read tea leaves and tarot cards.

  • Do you know anything about Tarot cards?

  • Did you bring your Tarot cards?

  • You might want to check those tarot cards one more time.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • Is it okay to talk about your tarot card reading with friends?

    Blog text (19)
  • Madame Divina starts laying out a series of tarot cards.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • Rose: I heard that they've all been studying psychic readings and tarot cards to get ready for the party.

    Fiction book (2001)

Synonyms

card
vstarot card
1.0

A small rectangular piece of plastic or cardboard for showing identity and for paying

is a specific version used for divination or special games with symbolic images
playing card
vstarot card
35 1.0

A small flat piece of thick paper with numbers or pictures used in games

is mainly used for fortune telling and features symbolic imagery and arcana

Surface Forms

tarot card singular
tarot cards plural

Morphology

tarot + card

The meaning 'one of a set of cards used for fortune-telling' is directly and compositionally derived from 'tarot' (playing/fortune-telling cards) plus 'card' (a single playing/item). This is a straightforward noun+noun compound denoting a member of a tarot deck, a pattern that is cross-linguistically common and immediately understandable to a learner who knows both constituents.

Etymology

Tarot card comes from sets of picture cards made in Europe long ago. People first used these cards for 'games', but readers began to use the strong pictures and 'symbols' to tell a person's story and guess the future, so today a tarot card means a card with a symbolic image used for 'fortune-telling' or in a 'game'.