A seance is a meeting where people sit together and try to talk to the dead, or to get messages from them. Someone in the room — often called a medium, a person who says they can hear spirits — may speak, write, or make a table move, and say the words are coming from someone who has died. In films this looks dark: a round table, holding hands, a low light. Though actually people have used the word for quieter rooms too, and sometimes for a show that is more theatre than belief. It is not an everyday word. You meet it in stories, in history, and when someone is talking about ghosts in a serious or old-fashioned way. Some people believe a seance can be real; many others think it is a trick, or a way to feel close to someone they miss. English took the whole word from French, so it is not built from sea, and it does not sound like see.