Incantation
noun
A series of words spoken as a magic spell or charm.
The witch chanted an incantation to cast a spell.
Often appears as...
- chant an incantation
- perform an incantation
Usage tips
Literary
noun
The use of spoken or sung spells as part of a ritual magic or spellcasting.
His work involves the performance of incantations intended to heal the sick.
Often appears as...
- perform incantations
- magical incantations
Usage tips
Colloquial
noun
A spoken word or phrase that is intended to produce a magical effect.
She murmured a quick incantation and the door slowly opened.
Often appears as...
- murmur an incantation
- learn an incantation
noun
A series of words spoken as a magic spell or charm.
The witch chanted an incantation to cast a spell.
Often appears as...
- chant an incantation
- perform an incantation
Usage tips
Literary
noun
The use of spoken or sung spells as part of a ritual magic or spellcasting.
His work involves the performance of incantations intended to heal the sick.
Often appears as...
- perform incantations
- magical incantations
Usage tips
Colloquial
noun
A spoken word or phrase that is intended to produce a magical effect.
She murmured a quick incantation and the door slowly opened.
Often appears as...
- murmur an incantation
- learn an incantation
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/3Literary Device
Often found in fantasy genres and folklore, setting a mystical atmosphere in the story.
The old book contained incantations that would awaken mythical creatures.
Pro Tip 2/3Specific Vocabulary
Incantations often use archaic or obscure language to sound ancient or ceremonial.
The druid spoke the incantation, invoking the language of the elders.
Pro Tip 3/3Rhyming Patterns
Incantations may have a rhythmic or rhyming structure making them memorable or chant-like.
With a hum, the witch recited the incantation, every word rhyming with the last.
Pro Tip 1/3Literary Device
Often found in fantasy genres and folklore, setting a mystical atmosphere in the story.
The old book contained incantations that would awaken mythical creatures.
Pro Tip 2/3Specific Vocabulary
Incantations often use archaic or obscure language to sound ancient or ceremonial.
The druid spoke the incantation, invoking the language of the elders.
Pro Tip 3/3Rhyming Patterns
Incantations may have a rhythmic or rhyming structure making them memorable or chant-like.
With a hum, the witch recited the incantation, every word rhyming with the last.
Pro Tip 1/3Literary Device
Often found in fantasy genres and folklore, setting a mystical atmosphere in the story.
The old book contained incantations that would awaken mythical creatures.
Pro Tip 2/3Specific Vocabulary
Incantations often use archaic or obscure language to sound ancient or ceremonial.
The druid spoke the incantation, invoking the language of the elders.
Pro Tip 3/3Rhyming Patterns
Incantations may have a rhythmic or rhyming structure making them memorable or chant-like.
With a hum, the witch recited the incantation, every word rhyming with the last.
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Video examples
A day in the life of an...
Her next stop is the House of Life. On her way, a woman intercepts Peseshet in the street. The woman’s son has been stung by a scorpion. Peseshet has seen many similar stings and knows exactly what to do. She must say an incantation to cast the poison out. She begins to recite the spell,
Video examples
Homeopathy, quackery and...
I have a very peculiar background, attitude and approach to the real world because I am a conjurer. Now, I prefer that term over magician, because if I were a magician, that would mean that I use spells and incantations
Video examples
Exorcising the Devil PIPE...
conjurations were often terrifying physical restraints fevered prayers haunting incantations clergy and victim battled over the soul of the possessed
Video examples
A day in the life of an...
Her next stop is the House of Life. On her way, a woman intercepts Peseshet in the street. The woman’s son has been stung by a scorpion. Peseshet has seen many similar stings and knows exactly what to do. She must say an incantation to cast the poison out. She begins to recite the spell,
Video examples
Homeopathy, quackery and...
I have a very peculiar background, attitude and approach to the real world because I am a conjurer. Now, I prefer that term over magician, because if I were a magician, that would mean that I use spells and incantations
Video examples
Exorcising the Devil PIPE...
conjurations were often terrifying physical restraints fevered prayers haunting incantations clergy and victim battled over the soul of the possessed
Example 1 of 3
Quote examples
Steven Pinker
Canadian Scientist
A word is an arbitrary label - that's the foundation of linguistics. But many people think otherwise. They believe in word magic: that uttering a spell, incantation, curse, or prayer can change the world. Don't snicker: Would you ever say, 'Nothing has gone wrong yet' without looking for wood to knock?
Quote examples
Josh Gates
The mummy's curse really didn't catch on as a premise until they opened Tut's tomb. But it is true that there are spells, and incantations, and warnings on some of the pharaoh's tombs that do promise destruction to anyone who disrupts their eternal sleep, so there is precedence for it.
Quote examples
Alice McDermott
American Writer
Much of my experience with language was formed in the church, which has an oral tradition. There are lots of repetitions in prayers and song refrains. There's a sense of incantation, that if you call not once and not twice but for a third time, the spirit appears.
Quote examples
Jonathan Dimbleby
British Writer
Rolling my trousers down to expose the upper part of my buttocks and having a knife pressed up and down my spine by a Russian white witch, as she murmured incantations, was certainly a new experience to cure my backache. It was surprisingly soothing.
Quote examples
David Brin
American Author
Those who use 'Correlation is not the same as causation' as a magic incantation to dismiss all fact-using professions are fools holding a lit match in one hand and an open gas can in the other, screaming, 'One has nothing to do with the other!
Quote examples
Louis MacNeice
British Poet
The poet is primarily a spokesman, making statements or incantations on behalf of himself or others - usually for both, for it is difficult to speak for oneself without speaking for others or to speak for others without speaking for oneself.
Quote examples
Molly Ivins
American Journalist
Anyone who has ever spent time listening to a legislature knows the astonishing speed at which all presiding officers and reading clerks can spit out the formulaic incantations of parliamentary procedure.
Quote examples
Christopher Hitchens
American Author
I don't think souls or bodies can be changed by incantation. Or anything else by the way.
Quote examples
Sophocles
Greek Poet
A wise doctor does not mutter incantations over a sore that needs the knife.
Quote examples
Steven Pinker
Canadian Scientist
A word is an arbitrary label - that's the foundation of linguistics. But many people think otherwise. They believe in word magic: that uttering a spell, incantation, curse, or prayer can change the world. Don't snicker: Would you ever say, 'Nothing has gone wrong yet' without looking for wood to knock?
Quote examples
Josh Gates
The mummy's curse really didn't catch on as a premise until they opened Tut's tomb. But it is true that there are spells, and incantations, and warnings on some of the pharaoh's tombs that do promise destruction to anyone who disrupts their eternal sleep, so there is precedence for it.
Quote examples
Alice McDermott
American Writer
Much of my experience with language was formed in the church, which has an oral tradition. There are lots of repetitions in prayers and song refrains. There's a sense of incantation, that if you call not once and not twice but for a third time, the spirit appears.
Quote examples
Jonathan Dimbleby
British Writer
Rolling my trousers down to expose the upper part of my buttocks and having a knife pressed up and down my spine by a Russian white witch, as she murmured incantations, was certainly a new experience to cure my backache. It was surprisingly soothing.
Quote examples
David Brin
American Author
Those who use 'Correlation is not the same as causation' as a magic incantation to dismiss all fact-using professions are fools holding a lit match in one hand and an open gas can in the other, screaming, 'One has nothing to do with the other!
Quote examples
Louis MacNeice
British Poet
The poet is primarily a spokesman, making statements or incantations on behalf of himself or others - usually for both, for it is difficult to speak for oneself without speaking for others or to speak for others without speaking for oneself.
Quote examples
Molly Ivins
American Journalist
Anyone who has ever spent time listening to a legislature knows the astonishing speed at which all presiding officers and reading clerks can spit out the formulaic incantations of parliamentary procedure.
Quote examples
Christopher Hitchens
American Author
I don't think souls or bodies can be changed by incantation. Or anything else by the way.
Quote examples
Sophocles
Greek Poet
A wise doctor does not mutter incantations over a sore that needs the knife.
Example 1 of 9
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