Word.ws English Dictionary

athame

UK/əˈθeɪmeɪ/US/ɑˈθɑ.meɪ/

athame noun: a ceremonial pointed knife or dagger, used especially in Wicca and other neopagan traditions and typically having a black handle with magical symbols on it.

Noun

athame (plural athames)

  1. A ceremonial pointed knife or dagger, used especially in Wicca and other neopagan traditions and typically having a black handle with magical symbols on it.
    • She is moving with a regal gait, grasping the arthame, or magic knife.1931, Émile-Jules Grillot de Givry, chapter 7, in JC Locke, transl., Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy
    • Agia was quicker, making a cut at my neck with an athame before his weapon was free of the scabbard.1981, Gene Wolfe, chapter VII, in The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun; 2), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 60

Examples of athame in a sentence

  • The athame is a black-handled ritual knife—one of the most common distinguishing marks of the Neopagan Witch.1999, James R. Lewis, Witchcraft Today: An Encyclopedia of Wiccan and Neopagan Traditions, page 22:
  • Tradition says an athame should never have drawn blood.2023, Skye Alexander, The Kitchen Witch, Simon & Schuster (Adams Media), page 60:

Forms of athame

pluralathames
alternative formathamé

Origin of athame

From French athamé in a 1929 passage from É.-J. Grillot de Givry (see 1931 citation below), apparently from Medieval Latin artavus (“quill-sharpening knife”). Artavus was also mistranslated into artauo in an Italian manuscript. The arthame was conflated with the cortel nero (“black knife”) by Grillot de Givry, and that conflation was passed on to Gerald Gardner (whose 1954 book Witchcraft Today introduced Wicca to the public).

Questions about athame

What does athame mean?
Athame means a ceremonial pointed knife or dagger, used especially in Wicca and other neopagan traditions and typically having a black handle with magical symbols on it.
How do you use athame in a sentence?
The athame is a black-handled ritual knife—one of the most common distinguishing marks of the Neopagan Witch.
What part of speech is athame?
Athame is a noun.
How do you pronounce athame?
Athame is pronounced /əˈθeɪmeɪ/ (UK).
What is the plural of athame?
The plural of athame is athames.

Words near athame in the dictionary

  1. Athahendhu
  2. athalline
  3. athamantin
  4. Athamas
  5. athambia
  6. athame
  7. athames
  8. athamé
  9. athamés
  10. athan
  11. Athanaselis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: athame (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “athame.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/athame. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.