The “Clar” blessing: List of positive words in the “Clar” etymology family

Sunday, April 5, 2026

There are many positive words in the “Clar” etymological family. “Clairvoyant,” “Clarifying,” and “Clarity,” just to name a few. This page shows examples of these words in news articles and other media. All of these words come from the Latin root word “clarus,” meaning “clear.” For each example, I show the sentence containing the word, and I also include a link to the news article or webpage using the word, so you can visit and read the article in full. The word is shown in boldface, and each entry also starts with the date, in boldface, of the article. For each section, they are shown in chronological order, from earliest to latest.

Although there is no scientific evidence for the existence of clairvoyance and other psychic abilities, “clairvoyant,” and many other non-scientific terms like it, can be used casually or figuratively. As it turns out, “clairvoyant” and “clairvoyance” are very beautiful words, and they make for great compliments due to their very positive connotations and denotations. Several online dictionaries, such as Dictionary.com and American Heritage Dictionary, list a figurative sense for one or both of these two words, in addition to its common meaning, “having the ability to see beyond the range of natural vision,” the most common example being the ability to foresee the future. Dictionary.com lists two senses for “clairvoyance”:

1) The supernatural power of seeing objects or actions removed in space or time from natural viewing.
2) Quick, intuitive knowledge of things and people; sagacity.

With the second listed sense above, you can absolutely use this word as a compliment to describe someone who has remarkable insight or intuition, without the need for any ESP to be involved.

November 6, 2017: “I still recall sitting down with Sasha to read through our parts, sort of like a script reading, and we both sat there in tears, having trouble holding it together. It was because they had written something so clairvoyant and to the core of what the human struggle is. It doesn’t matter what your orientation is. Whether it’s what you might call in slang terms, about an uber-straight guy who is insecure about his own identity, wondering who likes him, what group he fits into, or whatever it might be.” [1]
January 18, 2020: “As Eilish fever raged last year, Popjustice founder Peter Robinson tweeted: “Imagine how amazing a Billie Eilish Bond theme would be.” When the news was announced, I called him to discuss his clairvoyant skills.” [2]
May 7, 2024: “On ‘World on a String’, Pratt sings “I want to be the sunlight of the century/I want to be a vestige of our senses free.” The irony is, for someone so clairvoyant, she doesn’t realize she’s already arrived.” [3]

October 31, 2022: “External form could even harmonize a fractured inner life, at least in the moment of dancing. It didn’t erase a person’s faults or dull her anxieties, but it did hold out the promise of a more ordered soul. At peak, the dancer felt fluid and strong, integrated, coordinated, and, above all, clarified.” [4]
March 30, 2023: “Silvestrov’s instructions call for a baritone that sounds like a tenor, and Krimmel, with his clarified timbre and gossamer top notes, fits the brief exquisitely.” [5]

April 11, 2018: “The best part about beginning with your clothes is that “you don’t have to get buy-in from partners or kids,” Fortin says. “You can lead by example, and it’s a great, clarifying, universal place to start.”” [6]
June 23, 2018: “I found the book to be insightful and clarifying in a way that traditional career-focused books for women rarely are.” [7]
July 7, 2018: “This is a clarifying and unifying story, in a world that seems paralyzed by division, unable to tell facts from lies and perhaps even uncertain about the nature or existence of reality.” [8]
May 1, 2020: “As Afrobeat’s rhythmic architect, Allen gave the music its feverish elegance and its clarifying grace.” [9]
November 15, 2023: “I asked my colleague Jonathan Mahler — the co-author of a new Times Magazine article about the problems at Warner Brothers — how Hollywood could simultaneously be booming and suffering. I found his explanation clarifying, and I’m devoting today’s newsletter to it. As Jonathan pointed out, streaming has both expanded the entertainment business and undermined its old model.” [10]
December 28, 2024: “It’s a very clarifying process, which lets me look back on a year of movies and pick out what I was immediately infatuated with and see if that opinion holds up a few months later. Usually, it does, but with varying degrees.”
April 11, 2025: “I came to his Jerusalem home that morning, I knew this would be a special interview after having read several of his ninety books over the years. What I didn’t anticipate was leaving with a message so powerful, so clarifying, that it felt like I had been handed wings.” [11]

October 23, 2020: “Then Mr. Thompson sang a clarion rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”” [12]
October 27, 2022: “And, with the clarion elegance of Davóne Tines in the title role, this is one of the year’s most essential, and urgent, opera recordings.” [13]
March 16, 2023: “The very young Tina (born Anna-Mae Bullock and renamed Tina by Ike when the two became an act) is played by Ayvah Johnson, 9, whose clarion voice and wonderfully exuberant spirit and confidence are truly remarkable. She easily suggests the woman Tina would become. Talk about stage presence.” [14]
March 30, 2023: “Abeysekera — a petite hurricane of an actor with reeling limbs and a clarion voice — is excellent in an exhausting role.” [15]

October 27, 2022: “The Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman has always been a thoughtful interpreter with a gift for clarity and singing melodic lines — adept at the modes of expressive longing in Romanticism and Chopin alike.” [16]
January 16, 2023: “Capote also wrote a three-page essay about Avedon for the opening of “Observations,” praising the photographer for his clarity of vision, his prolific production and his expansive artistic influence.” [17]
May 7, 2024: “Talking with RANGE, Pratt explains how her songwriting has always been inspired by “a patchwork of stuff,” in particular, film, books, history, and music. It’s that integration of influences that allows for endless permutations of affect, even when wielding a single acoustic guitar. With an extended arsenal of instruments, she can cite her reference points with even more clarity.” [18]
September 26, 2025: “From the moment he took the stage to when he left, Kimmel expressed his ideas with the utmost clarity and intention.” [19]
October 31, 2025: “Mapmakers of the 19th century sought to render both the natural and political worlds with clarity and beauty.” [20]