Standard Lemma guide

promnesia

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • prŏm-nēʹzhə
  • prŏm-nēʹzĭ-ə
  • General-American: /pɹɑmˈniː.ʒə/
  • General-American: /pɹɑmˈniː.zɪ.ə/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /pɹɒmˈniː.ʒə/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /pɹɒmˈniː.zɪ.ə/
  • rhymes with -iːʒə
  • rhymes with -iːziə

1

noun

Meaning 1

Déjà vu, a sense of having experienced some event before due to an imagined memory.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: neologism, uncountable

Topics: human-sciences, medicine, psychiatry, psychology, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Coined by philologist and psychical researcher Frederic W. H. Myers (1843-1901) from Ancient Greek προ- (pro-, “pre-, before”) + μνήμη (mnḗmē, “memory”) + -ία (-ía) on the model of amnesia, from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think, mind”). Compare Greek προμνησία (promnisía).