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PlainSpell

scry

/skɹaɪ/verb

scry is a verb meaning “To magically or supernaturally look into or (as an entertainer) predict (the future), using crystal balls or other objects” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled S-C-R-Y, and it appears about once in every 25 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does scry mean?

verb

  1. 1

    To magically or supernaturally look into or (as an entertainer) predict (the future), using crystal balls or other objects.

    The fortune teller claimed she could scry [into] the future.

  2. 2

    To use magical means to see or look into (something that is happening outside one's sight, e.g. inside a building or far away, or in the distant past, or future, etc).

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo descry; to see.

  4. 4

    obsoleteTo proclaim.

noun

  1. 1

    obsoleteA cry or shout.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce scry?

  • /skɹaɪ/

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-scry.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of scry

  • scries present, singular, he/she/it
  • scrying participle, present
  • scried participle, past
  • skry

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is scry?

Scry appears about once in every 25 million words in written English, the 152,206th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Scry in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense predict the future using crystal balls or other objects:

LanguageWords
Portugueseprever, antever, futurar
Spanishagorar, augurar, vaticinar

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does scry come from?

From Middle English scrien, scryen, a shortened form of Middle English ascrien, from Old French escrier (“to cry out”). Influenced by Middle English descrien (“to descry”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).